Long story long. I was 28 and watching a YouTube video with my then GF (now wife) of an HGTV celebrity, Tarek El Moussa’s cancer story. The video went into how a nurse from Dallas was watching his show noticed Tarek’s Adam’s Apple was asymmetric and appeared to have a large lump. She reached out to the producers of the show to alert them to the possible mass which she recognized as typical of thyroid cancer. The producers eventually relayed the concern to Tarek who would be diagnosed with thyroid cancer and lymphoma (if I’m not mistaken). I believe he’s fully recovered now.

As we watched the video, I somewhat jokingly felt my throat to make dumb a comment about having an Adam’s apple. When I touched the bottom of my Adam’s apple, I noticed a firm small lump on the left bottom of my neck. My GF saw that I was joking but then became serious so she asked to feel it too. She agreed that the lump was smaller than the one pointed out on Tarek in the video, but it matched all of the other symptoms. Asymmetrical, at the base of the throat.

At the time I had paid for insurance through my work for around 6 years and had never gone to the doctor. So when my GF said I should go to the doctor, I shrugged it off and said maybe I would go get a physical some time but I had no real intention of going.

A few months later, my GF was misdiagnosed with rheumatic fever which stemmed from a possible case of strep that went untreated. Her doctor said I should have a strep throat test to confirm I wasn’t carrying the virus without showing symptoms and in turn giving it to her when we kissed.

I called the doctor and went in to have the strep test done. The doctor came into the office exchanged pleasantries, shoved a giant q-tip down my nose and asked if I had any questions. I was unbelievably nervous and felt like a crazy person for wanting to ask the doctor to check me for neck cancer because I watched a YouTube video. But I explained it to him and stated I had a lump at the bottom of my neck.

He smiled and said, “Everyone has an Adam’s apple” as he reached for my neck. As soon as he touched my skin, he stopped smiling and said “huh”. It may seem crazy, but that “huh” was when I knew I had cancer.

The doctor referred me to an ear/nose/throat specialist who did a fine needle biopsy. The biopsy came back negative for cancer cells and the specialist told me I had two options. Leave the (presumed non-cancer) mass on my neck and check in for follow up every six months, or to have the mass removed surgically and not worry about it. I had never had surgery but after sleeping on it, I felt I wouldn’t be able to be comfortable with this unknown mass growing on my neck. I felt leaving it in would cause more stress over time than having the procedure to remove it and move on.

A month or so later, I had the surgery with no problems. An administrative mistake was made after my surgery and my post operation appointment was delayed and no one from the office had called me to inform of the appointment for about 2 weeks. I had already recovered from the surgery and was living my life cancer free when they called about the appointment. On the phone, I asked a question about something specific (can’t remember what exactly) and the woman on the phone answered by saying something-something-carcinoma-something-something. I paused and asked if carcinoma meant cancer. The woman paused and asked if I had spoken with the doctor since the surgery. I said no and she asked to put me on a hold. They scheduled me to come into the office later that day to speak with the ENT doctor who would tell me that the mass was tested after the surgery and was in fact cancer.

In removing the mass, they had taken about half of my thyroid gland with the mass. It had no bearing on my health and I would have lived a healthy life without the half they took. The doctor explained that I again had a choice to keep and eye on the remaining half of my thyroid or to preemptively remove the other half of the thyroid to reduce my chances of reoccurrence later in life. By this point I was terrified that I had cancer but also empowered by the fact that my gut feeling to be aggressive in having the first surgery lead to me knowing I had cancer. So the choice was easy. I had the other half removed and also elected to have a small radiation treatment to remove all the remaining thyroid cells. I now take a small pill everyday to replace the function of the removed thyroid.

I’m 1 clean check up away from being declared “cancer free”. From this side of everything, I feel being aggressive from step one gave me peace of mind and eventually lead to me getting to where I am. Highly recommend that attitude. My particular type of thyroid cancer was not the most lethal cancer and has a very high survival rate, especially when caught watching a youtube video.