Medical Update

I thought I should update you all on the results of my fine-needle aspiration biopsy of that thyroid nodule...inconclusive. They had a lot of trouble reaching it and got some cells that appear normal and none that looked malignant but, they really got too few cells to say for sure. So, I emailed Dr. Damrose who is going to be fixing my left vocal cord about possibly just taking the nodule off during my little surgery next month. He emailed me back and said he could.

However there are risks. If he took it out during my surgery I'd be put totally out instead of given that twilight drug. Also he would have the nodule sent to the lab and looked at while I was still opened up. If they found it to be cancerous they would take my entire thyroid. With that, there's a 7% chance that I'd get some paralysis on the right vocal cord. If they fixed the left vocal cord and I got paralysis on the right side I would have difficulty breathing and that would lead to a tracheotomy. He would then have to remove my vocal cord fix on the left side. That would totally stink. He wants me to have the slides from my biopsy sent to his lab to see if his guys can get a more conclusive read on it. If his guys see cancer he would just remove my thyroid and wait on the vocal cord fix.

I'm going to have the lab send him the slides and I'll see what his guys come up with. So far nothing points to malignancy so I'd probably be fine having the nodule removed. And, even if it was cancerous I would want it removed so, I'm leaning towards have the nodule removed. The risks are pretty low even if it is cancer.