# Deciding to have surgery



## redmoon (May 14, 2012)

I'm trying to figure out what my threshold is before I consent to surgery- I don't have anything glaringly terrible going on as far as we know (the next FNA will tell us more, right now have atypical follicular cells and a lymph node acting up). If I have another FNA and nothing is changed, do I just have surgery? My thyroid is functioning fine- is living on drugs instead of a functioning thyroid worth losing it?

Is the 5-15% chance of cancer based on people who left their thyroids in, or on people who took them out just in case?

If you had a sort of amorphous situation going on, how did you decide?


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## webster2 (May 19, 2011)

The first time I had surgery, there was no choice. The second time, I could have tried RAI. RAI scared me and it doesn't always work the first time. It took awhile for me to get the meds correct. I think it is getting really close right now but I feel so much better than I had in the past.

The surgery is not too bad as far as recovery and pain. I kind of like my scar ;0

Best of luck with your decision!


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## polly (Oct 29, 2010)

redmoon - I had my TT on 3/5/12 and so glad I did. My decision was based on labs going up and down all the time in the past year or so and being diagnosed with another autoimmune disease. As, I've posted before, cancer was not considered by me or my doctors really. However, pathology did find a small cancer! Which from what I was told and researched is not uncommon.

Surgery was not bad at all for me and my scar is looking really good. Pretty much either way we go with thyroid problems we will be on medication for life.

Wishing you the best!


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## jshep (Apr 13, 2012)

I am definitely not saying to just jump in and go for it, but I know for me, I am glad I did. I went for a biopsy of what we thought was totally benign, and it was, however, during the FNA they found another small nodule that looked like it might be cancer. The surgeon recommended total thyroidectomy, and I don't regret the decision. I literally just had it a week ago, and recovery has been fairly easy. Now that's not to say that others haven't had trouble. Some people have had very different experiences regarding impact on voice and other things. I have had very little pain - honestly, the most pain I have felt through this entire thing was probably removing the TAPE holding on the first dressing after surgery! OUCH!!! I was annoyed by the prospect of having to be on the hormone replacement, but assuming you can be on generics, it's usually not going to cost too much per month. I'm glad I had the surgery - the pathology came back and the little one was a tumor, so I avoided what could have potentially continued to grow and become much worse by having it out now... for me, the little inconvenience of taking a pill every day is very worth knowing I am cancer-free. But I definitely understand it's a lot more difficult of a decision when it's not clear one way or another. My best advice is listen to your doctor... this is your first time dealing with this... they work with many many people each year going through this. Has he made a recommendation yet? Or is that waiting on this next FNA I suppose...?


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## redmoon (May 14, 2012)

Thus far I've only seen a family practice doc, so I don't have a lot of in depth knowledge coming from my doc around this yet. I have to put a call in tomorrow for my referral to the endo so we'll see what they say I guess.

I'll have the second FNA on Friday (blast having it on a weekend!!) so should know something more by Tuesday I'd expect. Ugh. Waiting is hard!


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## Andros (Aug 26, 2009)

redmoon said:


> Thus far I've only seen a family practice doc, so I don't have a lot of in depth knowledge coming from my doc around this yet. I have to put a call in tomorrow for my referral to the endo so we'll see what they say I guess.
> 
> I'll have the second FNA on Friday (blast having it on a weekend!!) so should know something more by Tuesday I'd expect. Ugh. Waiting is hard!


Waiting "is" hard but do know that we are patiently waiting w/you!


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