Has anyone ever had nodules on their thyroid

[sarahando16]

Hi, I have suffered with Health Anxiety on and off for about 7 years. All has been going well until just before Christmas when I noticed a lump in my neck, went to the Doctors and he said he thought it was a cyst on my thyroid (in the meantime waiting for the appointment, the lump went smaller), anyway he referred me to the hospital and I went yesterday for a scan of my neck. Well the Doctor there said I have lots of nodules on my thyroid plus this big one and I need a biopsy to find out what they are. The Doctor at the hospital said go back to your own Doctors in 5 days and he will refer you again to the hospital, well as you can imagine that has set my health anxiety off big time. Do you think they would leave me to wait 5 days if there was something wrong. Please help my mind is going over and over it and I don't want to end up in a state like I have been before.
Many thanks.
Sarah x

[countrygirl]

Hi Sarah - I used to work as advisor for a thryoid charity so here is what I would have told you if you had phoned me!

Nodules on thyroids are incredibly common and most people just don't know about it so big chance they are harmless.
Your Dr should have already done thyroid blood tests to see if the nodules are affecting your thyroid function.
It is totaly normal for any thyroid lumps to be biopsied. Same as if you had found a lump in your breast for example even if it was totaly harmless they would still biopsy it as this is only 100% way of saying its harmless.

Worst case scenario is thyroid cancer as I am sure this is what is worrying you. This is an incredibly slow growing cancer and rarely fatal so yes terrifying to be diagnosed with it but one of the least dangerous cancers.
I have seen and been in cotact with a fair few thyroid cancer patients and they usually had surgery to remove their thyroid and then a radioactive drink where they are kept in isolation for a few days to mop up any possible cancer cells. But remember I am telling you worst case scenario here and this type of cancer is rare.

Because most thyroid lumps are not cancerous and even if they were its so slow growing there is no need to worry about waiting for the biopsy.

You could try ringing our Drs surgery before the 5 days is up to see if he has results as the 5 days is what they tell everyone but usually the results get there in a couple of days and then your Dr will refer you to a general surgeon/endocrinologist for biopsy etc.

Remember much much more chance these lumps are harmless than cancerous but appreciated any waiting is agony:weep:

Any questions just ask me

[sarahando16]

Hi Country Girl,
Thank you so much for your reply, it means a great deal and really helpful. I think I will ring the doctors this week and see what they say, don't think I can wait until next week!! As you can probably guess I am thinking all the time of the worst case scenario and the waiting is awful, I would rather have the test now and find out! Just a quick question, do you know what they do for a biopsy, is it a big needle??!!
I really appreciate you taking time out to reply to me, thank you SO much.
Sarah x