# Pre-RAI treatment neck pain and lumps



## Cahlin (Jan 7, 2014)

Hi everyone! For any of you who haven't read my other thread a couple months back, I was diagnosed and treated for papillary carcinoma of my thyroid on January 27th, 2014 at the age of 27. I had a total thyroidectomy, and am unclear as to how many lymph nodes were removed. My surgeon told my sister that he got them all surrounding my thyroid, but my pathology report said that only one was submitted to them. Either way my tumor was 4cm in diameter, the size of an orange, and completely encapsulated. I have been off all meds for almost a month, and on the LID for the past 2 weeks. I had my pre-ablation scan yesterday and am scheduled for my RAI treatment and hospital stay on Monday.

My concern is this. Over the past 4-5 days I've developed a sharp pain in my neck, above my scar line, and I can feel 2 very distinct lumps to the left of my throat. The pain I'm having seems to be concentrated just below these two bumps. It is different than the occasional bout of nerve pain I've been having since the surgery, it is more constant, sharp, and almost feels like I have a sore throat. It even hurts to swallow, especially while eating. I did have one episode before my surgery where my thyroid was hurting so bad that it was radiating up to my salivary glands and ears and I couldn't eat at all that night. This pain is very reminiscent of that, except for the radiating pain. I have also noticed that my voice has become hoarse and that I'm having to clear my throat a LOT more than usual. My sister whom I live with just got over having the flu (which was actually pretty a-symptomatic except for diarrhea and vomiting), so it's possible I may just be getting sick, but my symptoms are very very similar to how I felt when I still had the tumor in my neck. I guess my main concern is that in the 2 months in between my surgery and this RAI treatment, I may have had a recurrence. I peaked at my I-131 scan as I was laying in the machine and could see my entire neck area light up. They put me through twice, concentrating on only my neck the 2nd time around. At the end the nuclear tech put on his screen a enlarged scan of my neck area and when he converted it to the white background there were 3 very distinct round masses all lined up in a column. Is this normal? And is a recurrence in such a short time possible? And if it is, would RAI take care of it since I'm scheduled anyway??? The nuclear specialist just told me they'd see me Monday. I know you guys aren't doctors, but I was hoping someone could have insight into this as I'm very worried.


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## joplin1975 (Jul 21, 2011)

Well, first, they always put me through twice, once for a full body, once for a focused look at my neck. 

It's *possible* to have a recurrence, but not likely. Although if you do have cancerous nodes still in your neck, they might have gotten bumped around and are irritated. In either case, RAI should zap it all out of there and you should be fine. Ask if they will do a post-treatment scan (it checks to make sure there's a decrease in cells a few days after your RAI treatment....in other words, if makes sure your cancer is "avid" to the iodine.

Good luck!


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## Cahlin (Jan 7, 2014)

Thanks Joplin for your response . Yes, I am scheduled for my RAI treatment on Monday (day after tomorrow eek!), and will have a post ablation scan the following Monday, so a week out from my I-131 dose. I suppose I will find out the results of my scan on Monday before they give me my actual dosage, so I'll see what they say. Either way if these "spots" on my scan showed up in the first place, it means that they uptook I-131 so I should be able to have them zapped away anyway right? If so then hopefully this will be the one and only time I need RAI!!


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## elsiebenton (May 23, 2014)

I had neck pain due to bad posture and get treated with a nice chiropractor and now I am in better position. But in your case its a major problem so don't know that a chirorpactor will help you out or not but still suggesting a nice chirorpactor for Neck pain treatment Fairfax, VA.


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## nel (Jan 22, 2014)

Hi Cahlin, just wondering how you are doing?


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