I usually write on the fibromyalgia post because that is what I have.......along with a few new things, like thyroid cancer.
I will start at the beginning. Many years ago I would (and still do) complain of a sore throat, swollen glands, and ear aches. I always felt like I was at the beginning stages of a cold. Sometimes the doctor would give me meds, sometimes tell me its allergies, and once in a great while send me to an allergist (didn't help).
Finally I said enough is enough and scheduled my own appt. with an ENT. I told him my symptoms and he looked and he agreed with the other doctors - nothing looks wrong. BUT, he didn't just let it end there. He ordered an MRI of the throat and wha lah.......a very large left thyroid.
This was the middle of this past December. Since then I have had an ultra sound, a fine needle aspiration, and a full thyroidectomy.
When the doctor talked to my family after the surgery he said I had a small nodule on the left thyroid that was cancerous so he took out the whole thyroid and this should be enough, except having to be on meds.
A week later I was told that the right side of the thyroid was cancer too and now I am going to have to have some kind of cancer treatment. He would not be the one to treat it so I had to make an appt with an endocrinologist(?). My appt. is the 24th of this month.
So, as of right now I do not know exactly how much or what type of cancer I had/have or the stage it is in. I also do not know if it was indeed contained in the thyroid. And, I do not know what kind of therapy I will be getting.
I know that thyroid cancer is the "best" cancer to have if you have to have one because it can usually be cured by removal of the thyroid or the radiation iodine pill. But, my concern is whether or not it could have spread. After all, I have been having the same symptoms, complaints for well over 10 years, so it wasnt caught early, and the prognosis is better the smaller it is and mine was very large (5.7).
Does anyone have any ideas what I may be in store for?? Is the prognosis still good?? If it has spread to the lymph nodes, what then??
Thanks for reading my long thread......Denita