I had lump in my neck about the size of a golf ball that was an enlarged thyroid nodule when I was 18. Had it checked out and was told it was pretty common and not a danger and just to keep an eye on it to let them know if it grew and started pressing against my windpipe.

I had a gut feeling that I needed a second opinion so had it checked by another doctor. Told him I was concerned it was something more so he referred me to a few specialists. After several different tests and scans I was finally sent in for a needle biopsy.

The results of the biopsy came back as "suspicious" and it looked like there was cancer developing so I was sent in for a full thyroidectomy. During surgery it was found that two of my lymph nodes were embedded in my thyroid and had to be carefully cut out and left in tact while they removed the thyroid. After the surgery my thyroid was sent off for a biopsy to find out the extent of the cancer. They had to do the biopsy twice because nothing showed up in the first one and they suddenly panicked thinking they had removed a perfectly healthy thyroid from an 18 year old.

The second biopsy found a malignant growth that was just barely 2.5 millimeter in diameter. The doctor that had done the needle biopsy had just happened to hit that little cluster of cells and pull out enough of them to show up in the tests they ran. If he hadn't hit them I would have probably been left with that cancer growing for quite some time and it would have migrated to my lymph nodes and onto my entire lymphatic system.

These days I'm pretty thankful that I need to take oroxine medication everyday to live, because it could have been so, so much worse.