Should I remove other half of my thyroid in order to do Tg bloodtest?

Posted by sanctuary1 @sanctuary1, Apr 12, 2020

Hi everyone! I had a thyroid lobectomy a week ago (in the middle of Covid-19!), due to suspicious nodule that did indeed turn out to be cancer. There was a small incidence of columnar variant cells, but not 100%. Everything was encapsulated in the nodule, they caught it early, and nothing had spread. I am still waiting for my specialist and the board at UCLA to discuss my pathology and make a recommendation as to the best plan for monitoring me moving forward, but my question is this: Do I go for a second surgery to remove the other half of the thyroid (healthy) in order to be able to monitor potential recurrence via the Thyroglobulin blood test? OR, leave everything as it is and monitor via ultrasounds every 6 months? I really don't want to go through a second surgery or be on medication for the rest of my life, but I also don't want to put myself at risk for not detecting recurring cancer. I truly appreciate any thoughts as I'm really not sure what to do! Thank you all!

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Thyroid Cancer Support Group.

Colleen Young, Connect Director | @colleenyoung | Apr 22, 2020

Hi @sanctuary1, a belated welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. I'm glad that you were able to get surgery during COVID-19 and that the cancer was found early. Did you see this discussion?
- Are you getting cancer treatments during COVID-19? https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/are-you-getting-cancer-treatments-during-covid-19/

You ask some really good questions about whether to have a second surgery to remove that other healthy half of your thyroid. I'd like to bring fellow members @nobody @jessea @bobr @nancirae @sophia07 @lindameyerson @sweetgia003 @jlanderson76 @remi @blulilbaby @jasonhanson into this discussion.

Sanctuary, have you had a discussion with your specialist in the meantime and discussed the pathology and followup plan?

remi | @remi | Apr 22, 2020

I would love to help you, but after they removed the first half of my thyroid and got the results back from the samples of the other half that half too was cancerous. So a month later it was removed. Good luck with your decision and God Bless

Nanci | @nancirae | Apr 22, 2020

In reply to @remi "I would love to help you, but after they removed the first half of my thyroid..." + (show)

I had the first surgery and they found a small cancer. They wanted to wait and see if the cancer returned. One hospital wanted that. Went for second opinion and they wanted to remove all of the thyroid. I went for the second surgery and never had to worry about cancer returning. My second surgery was done by a surgeon who did rentries 8 times a month. It actually was a more painless surgery the second time. Never had a problem afterwards

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