Papillary Carcinoma diagnosis after thryoid removal

melgiess
melgiess Member Posts: 1
in Thyroid Cancer #1

I am new to the forum. I am new to thyroid issues as of 5 months ago. Both of my older sisters have hoshimotos, but I had never had any symptoms. 5 months ago I found a large nodule on my own and it was very noticable. I had lost 25 pounds through diet and exercise so I am guessing that helped me find it. I went to my general practitioner who confirmed it was a nodule and he sent me to ultrasound which showed one large almost 5 cm nodule on the left and 4 smaller nodules on the right. My primary sent me to a surgeon. He decided to drain the nodule once it started compressing on my esophagus. He drained 33cc's and sent for pathology. Came back negative for cancer. They found I had hoshimotos so they put me on synthroid in an attempt to keep the nodule from growing again. I became hyperthryoid after about 2 months so they decreased my synthroid and within a month the nodule was growing back and my whole thryoid I could feel was swollen. My labs showed my entire thryoid had shut down and I was extremely hypothyroid even on synthroid so my primary and surgeon recommended removal. I had removal 3 weeks ago. Pathology came back after removal that there was a 1.3 cm papillary carcinoma tumor on the smaller right side. I am so thankful I had the surgery and it went wonderfully. Now that we know it was cancer my surgeon is sending me to an endocrinologist to get reevaluated to see if I will need RAI. I am just wondering if others have opinions on whether I should just go ahead and have it done and what I should expect this endocrinologist to do to test to see if this cancer had spread. Because we didn't know it was cancer upon removal there were no lymphnodes checked or removed and probably more tissue left behind then the surgeon would have liked. This is what makes me nervous. Any thoughts or opinions on this would be apprecaited. Thank you in advance!

Comments

  • August899
    August899 Member Posts: 3
    #2
    Hi, I'm kind of dealing with

    Hi, I'm kind of dealing with the same situation as you are. I had surgery back in December because of having nodules and found out a week after surgery that I had a Papillary thyroid cancer tumor as well. I recommend that you get the RAI treatment done for sure. Getting the treatment done will lower your chances of recurrence and it's good to be on the safe side. To test if the cancer spread, my Endocrinologist had me get these 2 shots, 1 day apart called "Thyrogen" and what they do is they raise your tsh (thyroid stimulating hormone) level and then on the 3rd day I got a low dose radioactive iodine pill that takes up any remaining thyroid tissue left over from surgery and 2 days later I got a CAT scan to detect where & how much thyroid tissue is left as well as if there is any cancer left. I hope this helps and that everything goes well with you! 

  • llcampa
    llcampa Member Posts: 1
    #3
    Papillary Carcinoma

    I just had my thyroid removed on 12/13/19 along with 16 or 19 lymph nodes containing the papillary cancer.  It was also in my nerves near my vocal cords both sides.  During surgery my surgeon scrapped both nerves next to my right and left side vocal cords.  He scrapped way more on the right side as it had the most cancer.  Because of this I am having breathing issues and swallowing issues.  I went to my ENT Monday and the left side nerve does show improvement/movement since surgery, but nothing at all on the right side and of course because of nothing on the right side and not full movement on the left side hince the breathing and swallowing issue.  Has anyone had this and if yes how long before full recovery of the nerves or at least one of the nerves.  LMK please

     

    Thanks

    Laura 

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