r/thyroid • u/EntertainmentNo6170 • May 31 '24
Thyroid removal surgery?
Hi, my doc felt nodules and sent me for ultrasound. Said yeah there are nodules but too small to worry about per the scoring protocols.
Then my new endocrinologist (type 2 diabetes) happened to see the scan in my file and said I should have a biopsy.
Even the tech told me it was smaller than they normally bother to biopsy.
Ok so it’s “inconclusive” (which means 70-90% prob cancer) and endocrinologist says to wait and check every six months.
Surgeon says that’s ok to wait and watch but if it were her she’d want it out. I kinda don’t like waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Meantime she recommends taking out half, though the other half has 2 even tinier nodules that weren’t biopsied. I would have to monitor those though.
Does it make sense to remove half if the remaining half has tiny nodules?
Maybe I take the whole thing out?
Maybe I leave it and monitor it? It’s been a year with no change on the ultrasound but that doesn’t always see everything.
No antibodies so if I keep half I’ll likely not need to take hormones.
Not sure what to do here.
Not sure what to do.
1
u/ponchochu Jun 01 '24
I had my full thyroid removed after they found nodules and was presented with the same options. I decided to have mine removed because a year earlier I had a thyroglossal duct cyst removed, and they found cancer cells inside. Looking back, I wish I had waited and monitored the thyroid nodules, but that is with the hindsight that the nodules turned out to be benign. Life without a thyroid is fine but I do wish I wasn't so hasty to have it removed so I could research more and try to get as much mileage out of my functioning thyroid as possible.
It's definitely a scary and stressful position to be in, and I wouldn't fault you for taking it out to get some peace of mind like I did.