I am sympathetic to all that have this RT. My husband will be going through the surgical biopsy this coming week to determine that this is the Riedel's Thyroiditis.. It is so rare that it has taken us over a year to get to the point of definitive diagnosis with the surgery. It started out 5/2010 with him feeling like flu, then by 10/2011 his symptoms escalated to full tiredness, voice was coming and going like larengitus, with thyroid issues. We got him on meds for thyroid and by 12/2011 he was in hospital for a week for nearly passing out , throat closed up, dehydration, after extensive check up nothing could be found as to what was wrong. With no insurance this was a costly event of 43,000. My husband continued to have fatigue and throat closing up issues, choking , and finally the dr detected that the neck was getting larger. He ordered CT scan and they found what they believe to be RT. We scheduled a biosy..but came back inconclusive.. so then they referred to Surgeon who we met with on Friday.. who advised surgical thyrodectimy to confirm the RT. At this point because the fibrose mass has grown and gone into surrounding tissues of jugular and carotic areas they will not remove the thyroid. Only a small section for biopsy to confirm not Cancer under this. My question is can you have cancer and RT.. and will the RT continue to grow into the carotic and jugular and possibly become fatal to my husband. We are scared this is getting worse and having to wait another few weeks for results is scary. Please give advise.