To be totally freaking out over thyroid FNA result

[Elsother]

Bit of a back story, I'd been fighting with my doctors for about 4 years with ongoing thyroid issues. My symptoms never quite matched my blood tests but in August I was finally diagnosed with Hyperthyroidism.

They quickly got me in for an ultrasound to check for nodules and only found one. Ironically I didn't notice the lump on my neck until after the ultrasound. So I couldn't say if it had been there for a while or if it was fast growing.

Fast forward a couple of months and I had a fine needle aspiration done 3 weeks ago. The ultrasound tech said he couldn't tell if it was benign or not but that would probably want to remove it either way. They phoned me last Wednesday to say that one of the 3 biopsies came back benign, one came back indeterminate and she said something was not nasty but not normal (I think she was talking about the ultrasound).

I had a call today to get me back in for a repeat biopsy next Friday. I work in health care so know that the longer you wait for an appointment the less urgent they believe the issue is (rightly or wrongly).

So I'm freaking out. I stupidly googled and read that usually a thyroid biopsy should be done again after 3 months. So naturally I've convinced myself I have the rarest type of thyroid cancer and won't make it to Christmas.

Anyone had a similar experience? I know I'm being dramatic, so I do apologise!

Why are you freaking out? It sounds like they're taking it seriously at long last. That's good. It's an ongoing investigation. That's good too. There's no call yet to diagnose yourself with cancer at all, and there's absolutely no reason to assume that you have a particularly rare kind that will kill you imminently. Are you normally an anxious person? A reasonable response here would be to be aware of the risk that it might be cancer, a risk that certainly is real based on what's happened so far, but not to catastrophise it.

I have a thyroid nodule noticed on ultrasound which I was advised to have biopsied in my home country, but here the NHS won't biopsy it, because it's only a small nodule. I'm not concerned about it being malignant because statistically it's very unlikely to be so, although I am concerned about the attitude to it here (they didn't even say 'we won't investigate this further because of our treatment guidelines', but they just told me 'it's benign' on the basis of no investigation whatsoever.) I will be arranging to have a biopsy done in my home country when I go there again.

I think it's fair to say that I have catastrophised.

Many years ago I suffered with health anxiety, but more so when my metal health was in a poor state. Things are much better now and for the most part I'm quite rational.

The lump is soft and mobile and it isn't pressing on my windpipe/throat. There is no hoarseness etc. I think it's how quickly things are moving that is causing me to think the worst.

I'm sorry you seem to have been dismissed here!

The consultant who saw me about nodules on my thyroid was very annoyed at something the person who did the ultrasound said to me. She said 'I wonder when he qualified to interpret results?!'. You shouldn't have been told that the nodules would probably be removed, because sometimes they don't need to be. Mine weren't, they are monitored by ultrasound annually and so far nothing to worry about. I was also called back quickly for a repeat biopsy, it turned out because they didn't take enough sample the first time, nothing sinister.

Listen to your consultant. Try not to worry.

I have had 2 biopsies on a nodule on my thyroid. The first result was indeterminate like yours but when I went for my results I asked about the rare type of cancer (as I had stupidly googled!) The consultant reassured me that with the rare type it is very easy to see on an ultrasound/biopsy so not to worry as it would have been picked up straight away.

p.s. Stop poking at your thyroid.

I am also waiting in thyroid biopsy results. I had my biopsy last week and I'm still waiting. I'm not sure how long they take to analyse or how to get the results. I called the ENT department to see if they had them yet and I didn't get a call back, so either they don't have them or they do and they don't want to tell me over the phone, however the consultant already called me the day after the ultrasound to say it was cancer so not sure what to expect from a biopsy if they are already so sure its cancer? The wait is so so hard isn't it :(