bumble wrote:Arson Smith wrote:Oh wow - this is somewhat eerie to me, as my girlfriend has just found out that she has a "complex cyst" on her thyroid. She doesn't know anything beyond that yet, though (we'll know more after some more doctor visits, and perhaps a fine needle biopsy?) I may end up PM-ing you with future questions as this plays out. Thanks for sharing that, seriously.
Hey Arson Smith, PM away, anytime. How's your girlfriend doing?
If they recommend removing her thyroid, please encourage getting another opinion. My friend decided that a thyroidectomy was the right choice for her, but doctors do freak people out unnecessarily sometimes. [I had some knife happy freak ass want to take out my pituitary gland once, but I went for a second opinion (which was "Hell no! WTF?") and I'm really glad I didn't have the surgery.]
all my best,
bumble
To PM, or not to PM... well I guess this still somewhat falls under the umbrella of "Little details from your day":
We went to the first endocrinologist appointment, where she had been led to believe that something was going to actually 'happen'. Nurse takes down some information, then of course you wait, then Doctor comes and asks a bunch of questions and even does that old 'test the reflexes with the little hammer' thing, then says "Come back in a week and we'll do this scan".
WTF. She thought this scan (or a FNA biopsy) was what she was there for?
OK, Doctor, whatever. So on the 12th they're going to give her a small amount of radioactive iodine to do an uptake scan to see what is what. The ultrasound already indicates that it is a complex cyst about 5cm x 3cm x 2cm, but I guess the radioactive iodine scan gives more detail...
So she's diagnosed as hyperthyroid, and has common symptoms such as weight loss, anxiety, insomnia, fatigue. Doctor goes on to explain to her that nowadays they are less likely to treat this (if cyst is benign, that is) with surgery. Instead they give a larger dose of the radioactive iodine to try and kill off lots of the thyroid.
The thing that seems weird to us (as non-medical people) is that this sounds so imprecise... like instead of cutting out the specific hunk that shouldn't be there, they're going to throw radioactive iodine at the whole gland and see what happens? But Doctor makes it sound like that's just the way it's done these days, preferable to invasive surgery. And apparently, whether that would kill off the entire thyroid is not a big deal to them, because then you're hypothyroid, and they just prescribe hormone therapy for the rest of your life?
Sounds a bit weird, but maybe that's just how it is? We're definitely trying to absorb as much anecdotal evidence as we can, to see if that sounds right, or just wack.