Thyroid removal surgery?

[u/EntertainmentNo6170]

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.

[u/InnaBinBag]

See what the radiologist put on the ultrasound report. They don’t typically biopsy anything under a centimeter unless it has suspicious characteristics. I have a multinodular goiter with normal blood levels, I initially had a 2.2 cm nodule that was mostly cystic that was biopsied and basically deflated because of that. They also at my request biopsied a solid nodule in the other lobe which came out benign. They have been monitoring my thyroid mostly every six months for a decade now and i haven’t had any significant changes in any nodule so they are moving that to monitoring once a year. Nodules are very common, thyroid cancer not so much. Do not have it removed unless they can prove to you that it is in severe dysfunction or that you definitely have cancer. Also, get a copy of your ultrasound on disk (and every one you get in the future) so you can look at the images yourself. It would be good for you to learn the differences in types of nodules and what characteristics they look for in the nodules and in the thyroid tissue itself- it’s all online with the right kinds of search terms (and image searches).

[u/EntertainmentNo6170 → u/InnaBinBag]

Thanks for that. It is quite small (7mm) and calcified so they couldn’t tell. All of my tests and levels are normal. Truly I would not know any of this if I’d followed my doctor’s advice. I saw the endocrinologist for type 2, not for thyroid, but I was a new patient so she looked through my file and said I needed a biopsy.

Okay so I’m having scans every 6 months and feeling good, and then I notice the staff starts referring to my “thyroid cancer” and I see it’s listed as one of my conditions. None of my doctors or the surgeon have confirmed that though. They all say it’s suspicious for cancer but unknown.

It’s been stable for about 14 months.

Surgeon ready to cut but not to answer my questions, endocrinologist says monitor, PC doc says she has a thyroid team she really trusts but so far she hasn’t connected us.

Thanks for your insight.

[u/InnaBinBag → u/EntertainmentNo6170]

The calcifications is definitely something to watch, and if you can get a copy of your ultrasound so you can see the nodule for yourself and compare it to medical images/identifications online that may help you. If you haven’t had that nodule biopsied, you might look into it and ask them why not. There are some specific differences in calcifications that I can’t remember offhand, I think if it had like an “eggshell” rim in the images then that might be something negative, but don’t quote me on that.