My Thyroid

Early January I had an ultrasound performed on my thyroid.   Back in Brasil when I was a teenager, my doctor found some nodules on my thyroid and said to keep an eye on it.  Back in the USA I mentioned to the doctor and he just checked on my thyroid levels on my blood work and everything was always fine.   My doctor retired so I switched to a new doctor and mentioned to him about my thyroid.  He decided to do an ultrasound to have on my records.    I figured it was fine, so it took me a little while to do it. 

After the ultrasound was complete in January, it showed a pretty large nodule on the left side, about 3 com and some little ones on the right side.   He sent me to a endocrinologist to check on those.   The endocrinologist performed a biopsy called FNA (Fine Needle Aspiration).   She injected a needle into my nodules (with the help of the ultrasound) and the results usually come back within a few days.   The first result was inconclusive so they had to send out to further studies.  After about 10 days, the results ended up being suspicious with a 40% probability of being malignant and 60% possibility of being benign.   The doctor made a recommendation to remove the nodule and referred me to a surgeon. 

I was pretty surprised with the result and didn't know what to expect with all that information.  If it was cancer I would have to do some radiotherapy treatment and could not be in contact with the kids for a week.   On the following day, I had my yearly appointment with my OB, which I adore him very much and told him everything that was going on.  He said not to worry, it is something very treatable and recommended Dr. Thyroid which it is her specialty.  I was very relieved talking to him.

Aaron went me to both doctors to get two opinions.  The first doctor was at a huge hospital, it was hard to park and we waited about 45 minutes to see the doctor.   He was nice and suggested to remove the whole thyroid since if it was cancer I would have to come back and take the other half as well.   The second doctor was at St.Lukes, the hospital where I had my both kids and feel very comfortable there.   We got there right on time and the doctor saw us within 5 minutes.   She was great.  She basically drew my thyroid on a white board and explained like a professor everything that was going on.  We both felt so much comfortable with her and ended up scheduling the surgery for the following week.

It was a good feeling, to get the surgery scheduled with a doctor that I felt comfortable and get everything out of the way.