THYROID BIOPSY RESULTS & SURGERY PLANS

I have to say, Google is beyond amazing. The creators of that multi-million dollar machine are magnificent. We've read so much about this thyroid situation online and greatly appreciate the fact that many people were willing to post information and details about their experiences. And because of that, we were very prepared going into the doctor to get the biopsy results. Who knows, maybe someone else in a similar situation will benefit from our experience in the future.We had to wait 9 days to get the results. Yep, 9 days. The tech said the results would be ready in 3-4 days, but I guess that's just when the doctor had an opening to sit down and go over the everything. I don't know, but the waiting is ridiculous. Your mind wonders in so many directions and you can't help playing out every possible scenario.

The closer the it got to the appointment time, the more nervous I got and started to feel like we would hear the "C" word. I didn't even want to say that word from the moment we first learned that it could seriously be a possibility for Nathan. He didn't either. But if he did ever say it, I would sort of gasp, and it would feel like my heart skipped a beat. I'm pretty sure I would always have a shocked look on my face and would quickly say, "Don't say that."

So the time finally comes and we have to sit in the lobby and wait and then wait in the exam room some more. We were one of the first appointments after lunch, so it's not like the doctor was running behind from previous patients. Why do they do that to you...Especially when you're waiting on something so important that is literally life altering news?
While we were waiting in the tiny, little exam room, I couldn't help but notice how old the exam chair was. Good grief, I think there may be actual solid oak on that thing. It kind of resembled one of those old timey execution chairs you see in the movies. All it needs is some straps.

Yikes!

We knew the doctor would quickly throw lots of medical information at us, so we recorded everything he said on Nathan's phone (without the doctor knowing...shhh). It's 16 minutes long even after deleting the last couple of minutes and all the insurance mumbo jumbo. I've been trying to figure out how to put it on here but have been unsuccessful. It has already been very helpful to several people, so if you'd like to hear some of his explanations for everything, just let me know in the comments section or something, and I will email it to you.

Let me listen again (and again and again) to try and transcribe some of this stuff. The doctors words are in quotations. My responsive, profound thoughts are not :)

Biopsy results:
The doctor barges in and immediately starts with,

“Needle aspiration didn’t show any cancer BUT…It says abundant follicular epithelium…arranged in microfollical sheets and… structures…consistent with follicular legions."

"What’s important about that is follicular…Follicular growths are pretty common but you can’t tell if it’s a cancer unless you take them out.”

Couldn't he have just said that the results technically do NOT show cancer at this point, but they still look VERY suspicious and the nodule needs to be removed regardless?!

So, the result really isn't even a complete answer or much more than we already knew. We hated feeling like we really didn't get an answer on the cancer. It's not screaming cancer right now, but it still could be. That sucks. He answered without technically giving us an answer...Just like a politician.

Plan of action:
Before the results came back the doctor said it was Nathan's choice to have it removed if it was benign, but now he said it needs to come out for sure. They'll remove half of his thyroid (Hemithyroidectomy) and the nodule, do a full, in-depth biopsy once the nodule is removed, and do a second surgery to remove the other thyroid if cancer is found.

“The advantage to taking out only half of the thyroid is that it’s less surgery, less blood loss, that sort of thing, reduces your risks to the structures around the thyroid.”

Yes, he said that sort of thing. As if blood loss is such a cool, casual thing. Doctors.

“The disadvantage is that if there is a cancer it means we have to take out the other half and have a second surgery.”

“If you look at thyroid cancers, occasionally they can be really aggressive, but that is rare. You can take out almost all of the thyroid and leave a little strip, and you still get plenty of hormones.”

Surgery process:
He’ll make an incision at the bottom part of the neck trying to follow a natural skin crease so it’s relatively well hidden cosmetically. He’ll cut through tissues and across blood vessels, pull muscles apart to see the thyroid, and dissect the tissue away from the thyroid. There were lots of explanations of the risks of cutting major nerves, chords, and arteries and what happens if they hit this or that…Very rare scenarios and I don’t even want to consider them even occurring at all.

It takes about 5-7 days to get an answer from the full biopsy because it is thoroughly sliced up stained and processed. Nathan will be going back in one week after surgery to get the stitches out, and they should have the results at that point. And if it IS cancer, the second surgery will be within a week or two because they want it done as quickly as possible.

Surgery will be an outpatient procedure and most likely no more than a couple of hours. We scheduled for early May because the doctor only does surgeries on Mondays, Nathan has to be in California for nearly two weeks for work, and Cole's birthday is coming up soon. So once again...More waiting.

Thank goodness we have this recording to replay over and over again to make sure we understood everything correctly because doctors' words easily get lost in translation. Their information is flying off their tongue so quickly that it's like one big, jumbled up run on sentence that you think you understand but aren't quite sure you understand it right because you may not be right even though you think you're right because doctor jargon is so dog gone CONFUSING!!! They forget that they're tossing out shocking and out of the ordinary information to you because it's normal, every day, routine conversation for them. They're so casual about it...Just as if they were talking about the weather. Craziness.

So there you have it. Sorry if this was too much information, but it's very beneficial to us...And hopefully to others as well.