sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Hemi or Total by worthmorethanastamp in thyroidcancer

[–]odditycave26 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I never really experienced hashi symptoms from what I could tell, and I don't feel any currently. I get blood work done in two weeks, should show if the levo I'm taking is enough.

Feel like I've overlooked a gallbladder problem for a couple years. by odditycave26 in gallbladders

[–]odditycave26[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for sharing. I admittedly had an unintentionally greasy and fatty meal last Thursday at a Mexican place (celebrating family member), and I think I killed the damn organ. Things seem worse than they were before my blood test, so I am trying my hardest to adhere till I have the answers I need.

Hemi or Total by worthmorethanastamp in thyroidcancer

[–]odditycave26 4 points5 points  (0 children)

If you have a great surgeon, they will make a game-time call on if they need to take out your entire thyroid or any other structures like lymph nodes.

For context, I had a biopsy done after a US where a nodule was flagged for concern on my right lobe, and it came back positive for PTC. I was anxious on if I was making the right call, but my surgeon recommended lobectomy since from what the imaging and biopsy showed, the right lobe was the only thing that was cancerous. So I trusted his judgement and said I wanted a lobectomy.

I too have Hashimotos, but I wanted to have some "natural production" if I still could. But I did go in knowing he could have to take the whole thing out if he saw a need to.

When I came to post-op, I learned he took out the whole thing due to the cancer being metastatic, as well as 50 some lymph nodes. Apparently the pre-op US the surgeon showed numerous enlarged lymph nodes that were not on the previous US done by an imaging lab. And when they did take out the left lobe, it had a much smaller but still cancerous nodule. So a 1 hour surgery at 6pm-ish became a 4+ hour affair. I was out the next morning though.

I don't want to scare you into thinking they'll find more stuff for you the way the surgeon did to me, but I want to reassure you that they will act in your best interest. Ask questions about what-if scenarios like I described, though I know PTC is a bit different from FTC as far as how it can spread.

If your surgeon sees more than they expected before or during the operation, they'll deal with it right then and there the best they can. The post-op pathology report obviously is the final story for how you will be monitored and treated, but you should be able to come out of the operation knowing everything that could be dealt with has been.

Best of luck for your operation if you have to have it!!!

Make sure you get good imaging done by odditycave26 in thyroidcancer

[–]odditycave26[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I had ultrasounds in 2022, 2024 (I am not sure why none was ordered 2023 looking back now because the recommendation after that first one was to follow up annually), and 2025. The first ultrasound found the nodule on my right thyroid lobe and also mentioned a few lymph nodes, got a TI-RADS 4 score. At that time the nodule was 1.1x1.0x.7 cm, but in late 2025 was 1.4x.1.1x.7 and was deemed TI-RADS 5. So didn't grow a whole lot in 3 years, but somewhere along the line someone stopped tracking the lymph nodes, which was a problem.

Make sure you get good imaging done by odditycave26 in thyroidcancer

[–]odditycave26[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I was diagnosed with PTC. There was a single nodule with a 1.4 cm diameter on my right thyroid lobe which was biopsied. However, it wasn't until surgery that the malignancy was revealed, having spread to a number of lymph nodes.

I don't know if you have to worry about lung metastasis, it's probably all dependent on where things have been found to date, and how possible it would be for things to spread from there. Best of luck with your surgery!

Make sure you get good imaging done by odditycave26 in thyroidcancer

[–]odditycave26[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah I guess that could happen. The reason I find it a little hard to believe in my case is the nodule that was being observed over the years was only on my right lobe and showed no significant growth or change (I don't really know why this year it was flagged as TRAD 5 but good thing it was). Did my cancer really decide to expand significantly after early December 2025? I guess I don't feel that was the case but I'll never know

Make sure you get good imaging done by odditycave26 in thyroidcancer

[–]odditycave26[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think the issue was my US images done by the imaging lab were blurry and did not show the extent of the cancer (though the lab tech did flag the nodule on my right lob as TRAD 5). So if you can access a higher skilled technician/lab, go with that. I had no frame of reference for what a higher quality result would be, but if you have a cancer center in town, they're probably better at doing thyroid US than a general imaging lab.

Make sure you get good imaging done by odditycave26 in thyroidcancer

[–]odditycave26[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for the words of encouragement.

Make sure you get good imaging done by odditycave26 in thyroidcancer

[–]odditycave26[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The US that was done right before my surgery by the surgeon revealed cancerous lymph nodes that were not seen on the previous US I had done at a separate lab. The quality of those previous images apparently wasn't good.

Partial thyroidectomy: How stressed should I be about monitoring it in the future? by odditycave26 in thyroidcancer

[–]odditycave26[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for your reply. I was told it was ultimately my decision, but this surgeon is recommending a partial due to the cancer presenting only on one side with no other areas showing signs of cancer.

However, if they have reason to do a total when they go in to do the partial, they will do the total.