Did any of you w/thyroid cancer have symptoms of a sore throat or burning sensation prior to surgery?
After surgery. Did they give you thyroid meds to start up on right after they removed your thyroid like they do when one has a hysterectomy? Or, did they wait until you had blood work dpne first to see where yourT3 & T4 levels were,,then wait till they bottomed out and start from there? Cindy
Do not take the chance. I'm obviously not a doctor, but would recommend you take your doctors advice and have surgery.
I'm only 24 years old and my FNA was normal follicular cells, doctors highly doubted malignancy but I pushed for it. I had a right hemithyroidectomy, and it was Follicular cancer.
When I had the rest taken out after that diagnosis, I also had a Hurthle Cell adenoma, it had grown 4mm in 4 months.
I am now on thyroxine, no thyroid, and have no complaints whatsoever.
It depends on where in the thyroid the nodule is. Sometimes if it is in the lower half of one lobe, a doctor will only remove that 1/2 of the lobe. Most docs won't do that, the thyroid is a very vascular gland, it is hard to stop the bleeding and doesn't heal well. Many of us here live without a thyroid, and once they find the correct dose of meds, you will feel fine. I have had no ill effects from TT, I am within 5 pounds of my weight prior to surgery. Hurtle cells are more likely to be cancerous than just follicular cells, Do you really want to take that chance and not remove something that may be cancerous? Some people live just fine with half a thyroid. I had "benign follicular clusters", but still had cancer, sometimes they can only tell when it comes out.
I would personally highly recommend you listening to your Dr regarding having surgery, especially for the fact that you have hurthle cells which they cannot determine if cancer or not! I wish I would have listened to my Dr when he was going to send me to a surgeon. I did not. Then by the time I figured all this out, my new insurance company decided to not cover anything with my thyroid. So I have suffered with nodules and swelling through this time, and have regrets of not taking care of it when given a chance. If you still feel undecided, then go for a second opinion. :)
In regard to starting up right away, they have to first determine if it is cancer, so for two weeks or until you get results you will be without thyroid hormone, but you really don't start feeing bad until a few weeks after you are without hormone. If it is cancer, it depends on the size and stage. A small cancer under 1 cm will not require treatment with RAI. Larger tumors do require RAI, if you need RAI you will not be given hormone for 4 or more weeks, I went 7 weeks. They do this so that if there is any thyroid tissue remaining it will be starved of iodine and hormone and suck up the RAI. The day after RAI you can resume thyroid hormone, that's when you begin to feel better. In regard to your throat, you might ask your ENT if you are suffering from GERD...many of us have that in addition to the thyroid trouble, I do. That can cause burning in the throat. Have it checked out.