More thyroid wackiness

[hel_ana]

Round four (or is it five?) in the epic struggle betwen Adrienne and her thyroid happened today... The rest is
As you may remember, had a Fine Needle Aspiration done on July 25, the afternoon of the day I went to GenCon.

I had an appointment at 5 today with the surgeon to discuss the results. Last Wednesday, I'd met with my GP to discuss my medication levels, and she'd indicated that the results she'd just gotten back from the surgeon were normal, and that everything was fine.

So I went into the surgeon's expecting to be told "everything's fine, we found it's just fluid buildup as a response to the thyroid anti-bodies. Going forward, you should watch for x and y, and report those things to your doctor."

However... not what I heard.

First, he watched me swallow, then felt my thyroid. Then he let me know that the cyst he'd drained had refilled, and was back to the size it was when it was drained. Then he poked through his papers, went over all the results back to the beginning (confirming my suspicions that my original doctor was wrong.. it's Hashimoto's thyroiditus, not Grave's Disease), and explained that the fluid he'd drawn had been inconclusive.

And then drew me a picture. A couple of them, actually.

The first one was a rough drawing of the throat area, locating the voicebox, windpipe, etc, etc. He showed me the ultrasound report, from way back when, indicating that I have a "cyst with both cystic and solid" parts. So he drew the cyst, to scale, on the picture. And then a close-up of the cyst itself, demonstrating what was meant by it having cystic and solid parts.

Everything he'd drawn with the FNA had been fluid. Unfortunately, while fluid cysts are generally safe to ignore, anything solid is not. So the solid parts need to be biopsied, but short of trying the blind FNA again and getting lucky, the only real option to do it is a FNA guided by ultrasound, which is an in-hospital proceedure.

He said that he's going to get me booked into the hospital in Guelph for that, but if that can't be done within six weeks, he'll get me booked into the hospital in Kitchener. He also said that in cases of thyroid issues/thyroid cancer, six weeks isn't biologically a big deal, but he does feel that time frame (or longer) is an issue psychologically for the patient.

To give you all a background, about 70-75% of FNAs come back "benign". 4-7% come back malignant. 1-10% come back with "the sample didn't contain enough cells for us to test", and 10-15% come back inconclusive (there are enough cells, but they didn't tell the lab anything).

So I'm scared, but also trying to stay calm, because the vast majority of nodules are benign, and because if there is something wrong, stress is only going to make it worse.

Anyway, if you're still reading, I need your help. If you see me getting despondant, please kick my ass. I need to stay positive about this.

hugs and kisses to all who've made it this far. :) so that those who are uninterested can skip it.

Of course, on the upside, my computer is all better.

Comments

[netgoth.livejournal.com]

*huggles* I'm here for ya grrlie. When you're feeling down, you can regale me with long tales about how You and Ross Became, and The house you're planning together. :)

Interior decor! w00t w00t!

[hel_ana]

Thank you :)

The story of how Ross and I Became is entertaining, but perhaps best told while slightly foxed. ;)