# 6 month wait to remove lymph nodes



## brooke (Jun 3, 2015)

I had a total thyroidectomy a week ago based on my doctors suggestion which I know needed to be done. I had a 4.5 cm nodule covering my left thyroid. We did an ultrasound before hand but I was told by the doctor that it was too big of a surface to try and biopsy as the bigger the mass the less accurate the sample will be because some of it could be cancerous and other parts not. There was also a 9mm lesion on my right. Is 9mm too small to biopsy? She said the left side had to come out but the right side was up to me. IF it came back cancerous I would have to go back in later and have the other side removed before any cancer treatment could be given. I went ahead and decided to remove both sides and a biopsy was done after surgery. I was pretty shocked when both sides came back papillary cancer. I was quickly able to get into MD Anderson and am being told now after a partial neck ultrasound that I have cancer nodules in my lymph nodes. These will have to be removed surgically. Here are my concerns...

1) They were only able to do a partial ultrasound image on the sides of my neck because my surgery was only a week ago and the area will be inflamed for a while. The new doctor has told me the biopsy results from my 4.5 cm came back "high margin" which I understand that to be that when it was cut out the cancer wasn't completely contained within the mass and could still be partially attached to the front of my neck area. I was originally going off the advice of what I thought to be an expert in this matter and she never even mentioned anything about my lymph nodes. Is it not common practice to look into this while they are looking at the thyroid area? Also, they can't get an accurate image with an ultrasound now of the front of my neck (due to the recent surgery inflammation), but are there other procedures I should ask for that could see if everything was removed or not? CT scan, pet scan, etc?

2) Since my surgery was done last week, the site needs time to heal and let the inflammation go down. They are telling me this will take 4-6 months. So basically, now I have to wait 6 months to get another surgery to remove my lymph nodes and then I can finally begin radioactive iodine therapy a few weeks after. Is this really an accurate time frame? What is the likelihood that this cancer can spread to other parts of me during this time?

I am a mother of two kids under the age of 2-1/2 years old so I am so freaked out that this will shorten my life and my kids not know their mother. I know this is taking it to the extreme but I have never had such a serious illness in my life. If anyone has experienced something like this or has any advice, please let me know.


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## Octavia (Aug 1, 2011)

Um...my surgeries were about two and a half weeks apart, and my second surgery included a central neck dissection (removal of lymph nodes because thyroid cancer was detected in the thyroid itself). Can you talk the surgeon into being a bit more aggressive?


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## Andros (Aug 26, 2009)

Oh, my goodness! I am so so sorry for what you are going through.

There is only one good bit of news; just think if you were not diagnosed thus far.

Others have had more experience with this and I am sure they will be along but I wanted to welcome you and let you know I care.


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## joplin1975 (Jul 21, 2011)

My surgeon's policy is to do a pre-op lymph node mapping ultrasound. If things look suspicious, he'd plan on some level of neck dissection along with the surgery.

If things don't look suspicious, he'll still look at the nodes while he's in there. If they look even the slightest suspicious, regardless of the pre-op ultrasound, he will remove them.

My ultrasound was fine, but he did remove the most central level of nodes (prophylactically) because my thyroid was a mess.

Have you discussed RAI with them? Have you ever had a whole body scan?


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