Surgery in 2 weeks and scared to death

[vicki824]

I apparently have an enlarged thyroid, surgeon doesn't know if the whole thing comes out or just one side.  My question is this, how many instances of these are cancer?  I don't know why, I'm just so scared that something will test as malignant, blood tests will show something strange.  I guess my issue is I know nothing about this kind of thing.  My surgeon believes that the thyroid simply has a goiter and I straight up asked if he thought it was cancerous and he said "no I do not, I think it's just a goiter".  I'm petrified of getting surgery but far more petrified of what happens afterwards. I see some people on here have had malignancies, could you tell me how they've turned out?

[loonette]

Hi,
From another post I made...
I had a goiter for several years (2004) before it's removal in 2009.  It was a watch and see approach.  After the initial fine needle biopsy to rule out cancer, I was told well it is so large you can't biopsy everything.  Great.  Why did I really have it done in the first place! It came back benign.  So, I didn't have surgery back then.  I took levoxyl for hypothyroidism and to keep goiter down.  It wouldn't stay down and I noticed it got larger in 2008 (another biopsy) which again showed benign multinodular goiter and Hashimoto diagnosis made then.  It was playing around with right side growing/left side growing so a fine needle biopsy did not help then since it came back benign.  

Finally, a carotid ultrasound by Primary doc because of dizziness, showed goiter enlarged.  Went back to endo, got a surgery referral, had TT (Hashimoto's was going to destroy it anyway) in July 09 and found papillary carcinoma T2.  

In my case, I did not have breathing difficulty or swallowing issues which is really bizarre.  In those cases it is clear to have it removed if the size of it is an issue.  With meds, if it doesn't remain the same or shrink, then it is time to look at why.  A friend of mine's goiter went down with medication.  Mine obviously didn't.  People live with goiter all the time, just be aware if it continues to enlarge that there is a problem. Also, monitor your own goiter.  There were a couple of years there that I was confident of the benign nature of the last fnas but I should have been doing my own neck checks to be sure that goiter was not enlarging or insist on another ultrasound.  Other things became a focus rather than my health.  Keep on top of it.

Have you ever been on medication?  Had an ultrasound or fine needle aspiration biopsy of it?  Or is it compression issues?

Hope it all turns out well for you.