more signs its cancer?!

[lindseybee]

I finally got my antibody test results and they were normal, along with all other blood work I have had done.  My nodule went from nothing in March, to 7.3mm on June 7th, to 7.8mm on June 18th.  The nodule does have blood flow, so a biopsy was performed yesterday.  He had to do the complete procedure TWICE because the first time he wasn't able to extract any cells.  He was concerned and said this is usually attributed to a nodule that has been there a while, but mine was non-existent 3 months ago.  He says this rapid growth and "hardening" of the nodule, plus all other indications, increase my risk of cancer (but of course still low).  

2-3 week wait on the biopsy results... My anxiety and irritability levels have increased DRAMATICALLY over the last few months, along with fatigue and sweats (the symptoms that led me on this journey) so I'm just freaking out a bit :/  I don't necessarily have any questions, although if you have any thoughts I would so appreciate them, I just needed to vent I guess...

[lindseybee]

Holy cow 7cm!!  Glad it wasn't cancer :)

Thank you for your encouragement Tamra!  Will certainly keep you updated on my pathology results!

[TamraW]

Well, that nodule is small and certainly hard to determine the correct size. 1.1 CM is still small range, though they do look HUGE on that ultrasound, which panicked me the first time I saw mine.

If, on the rare chance, it is cancerous, please remember that thyroid cancer is highly curable because it takes a long while for it to spread. You have one tiny nodule, not a huge mass.

My mom  had a solitary 7.0 cm nodule - a biggie! Doctor didn't want to biopsy because it was so huge. He was sure it was cancer, and it wasn't! Better safe than sorry for the large nodules, but anything under 2.0 cm, doctors do not want to remove unless there is a definite malignant result from the biopsy.

Take care and breathe easy. You'll be fine.
:) Tamra

[898_1]

Hardening of the nodule can be because of the scar tissue as calcification will be seen on the ultrasound; the size is given +/- 1 mm or 5% whetewer is MORE; therefore this nodule is unchanged (7.3mm). Also some machines are having different calibration.
Best of luck!!

[goolarra]

You're right, the conversion from mm to cm is just a decimal point...7.7mm = 0.77 cm.  So, it's less than a cm.  My guess is "rounding", which might compensate for the imprecision in being able to measure millimeters that exactly on a U/S.  It's pretty hard to eyeball a mm or two on a moving target.  The change from 7.3 to 7.8 may have been in the eye of the tech rather than an actual change in the size.

It sounds like you're being evaluated by a competant pathologist.  Keep us posted.

[lindseybee]

Yeah I would definitely say I am paranoid!  Question though... at 7.7mm, my US report and my doc referred to it as a 1cm nodule (now 1.1cm), but I thought the conversion was just a decimal point.  So why the difference in size?

The results take longer because he uses a pathologist at MD Anderson who is high in demand for thyroid readings (or so I am told, ha!).  Also, the overnight pathology lab my insurance requires is one that he does not trust, so I am fine with the wait under those circumstances.  

All antibody tests were run: TGab, TPOab, and TSI as well, all normal.  I am not on a gluten-free diet either :/  He was pretty confident even before the tests that I did not have Hashi's or Graves.

[TamraW]

Millimeters is still small range, so don't worry too much about it. Not centimeters, right?

Sometimes nodules that small are harder to biopsy.  Why such a long wait? It took my doc two days!!!

Anxiety, sweats and irritability is common when those nodules leak out hormone rendering us hyper.

Which antibody tests? Both TGab and TPOab for Hashimoto's right? What about TSI for Graves? I hope you have ALL of these tests.

Do you eat gluten? Sometimes when we are on gluten-free diets we get negative antibody readings when we in fact have Hashimoto's.  

I have diagnosed myself with cancer numerous times and my four nodules were bigger than yours, yet they all turned out to be benign. Even after they were benign, I still feared I had cancer. They've all shrunk to pencil points now, but I don't feel silly for my paranoia. Thyroid hormone can really make us panicky.

Take care...
:) Tamra