Enlarged Thyroid

[mikerfike79]

Hi

I've had a feeling of pressure/lump in my throat for about a month now. I went to the doctors and he said I have an enlarged thyroid. He said I needed a scan, and would be in touch.

Does anyone have anymore info about this? I wonder what type of scan? Also, he took and mentioned no blood test, which I thought he should have done to test my thyroid levels?

Thank you

[eeng]

Hi,

I believe this is an ultrasound scan which will detect nodules or areas of unusual cells. Usually these things are benign, so don't panic. Even if the worst is found, Thyroid cancer is very treatable.

If you have a lot of the symptoms of hyper or hypo thyroidism you doctor should give you a blood test, but my friend had a swollen thyroid, they removed about half her thyroid, found the lump was benign, and she hasn't been offered any further treatment. She was told that her body could cope with only half a thyroid. (we will see)

Sometimes if they find a nodule in your thyroid they do a fine needle aspiration to try to get some cells out of the nodule to test before deciding whether to send you for surgery, but this process is a bit hit and miss so they don't always do it.

Try not to worry about it, and I hope it all gets sorted out soon.

[Deana1914]

Hi, my first reaction was to think ultra sound scan, but then I thought maybe CT scan. Either are painless and over quickly. I had a lump on my thyroid that was picked up on a CT scan when I was in hospital for breathing problems. Next it was a ultrasound scan, then another ultrasound scan and needle test (similar to a biopsy to test the lump)

Unfortunately my test result came back suspicious and I had to have a total thyroidectomy in January this year. Lucky for me it wasn't cancer after all, but not so lucky to have no thyroid, my meds are still not right and i have had the worst year ever.

I do hope you are more lucky and everything resolves itself for you.