Upcoming 1st visit with the ENT surgeon

[hyper_what?]

I see the surgeon on Monday.  My mom is coming for the weekend so I talked her into going with me to the appointment. YAY for MOMS!!! What can I expect?? Will he schedule my surgery THAT day since I've already seen an endocrinologist??

I'M SOOOOOOOOOOOOO NERVOUS!!

[redhed87]

Make sure you ask how many of these surgeries has he done.....you want someone that does many a week, not just a few a month.  My surgeon was a surgical oncologist with a specialty in head and neck surgeries.  Make sure you ask how he is closing your incision.  I had stitches inside and surgical glue on the outside.  You can barely see my scar.  Is it for cancer?  My biopsy said "highly suspicious for papillary carcinoma" but my surgeon did a frozen section while I was on the table to verify that it was cancer.  If it wasn't, then they were going to take only one side.  It ended up being cancer and the took the whole thing.  I also had cancer in 2 lymph nodes.  Good luck.

[hyper_what?]

I know I will have surgery. I talked to my Endo about the options.  RAI isn't an option because of the nodules. He can't guarantee that RAI will stop them from growing so just take it all out NOW.
I already have a list started. I'm wondering about a partial thyroidectomy since the nodules are only growing on 1 lobe of my thyroid and thats the lobe that is hyper. Thats 1 question I have.   Another is how long will I be off work? I have a sit down job that I only started 8 months ago, so I don't have a lot of leave time.

[KJ5854]

My advice is to write down every question that you have and take that with you to your appointment.  Go through each question and have your surgeon answer it for you.  Don't leave your appointment without having every question you have answered.  I'm having a TT next Tuesday and when I met with my surgeon, who is also my ENT doctor, I had 46 questions on my list.  My ENT knows me, so this didn't surprise him!  I also expressed to him every concern I had about surgery and asked him to address it.

Do you know for sure you are going to have to have surgery?  When I first met with my ENT he explained my diagnosis and gave me two options:  have the suspicious nodule removed or have the entire thyroid removed which he recommended.  He thoroughly explained each option and why he believed the TT was the best option.  He said to think about it and call and him know what I decided.  When I called back a few days later I spoke with his nurse and told her I opted for the TT.  Later that day she called me back with my surgery date - it's Feb 5th.

Hope that helps!