Results first, then the background. Got a call from the Doctor's office today at about 4:55 pm, I was just getting ready to walk out the door and almost didn't answer the phone. Glad I did because they wanted to let me know the results of the skinny needle biobsy. The lump is benign (? non-cancerous) and we won't be doing surgery! Whew!!!

Ok, the background - about 1 1/2 years ago we discovered I had a lump on my thyroid gland. I've been seeing a thyroid doctor ever since. He's had me on medication for hypo-thyroidism which is supposed to make the lump shrink. Well, after giving the medicine months and months to work, we finally did another ultra sound to see what condition the lump was in. I thought it had grown because I can see it in my throat when I swallow, and I could tell it hadn't gotten any smaller. So when they did the ultra sound, they found that it had, in fact, grown in size, by about a centimeter or so, which doesn't seem like a lot, but when you're talking about a lump in your throat, it's a lot!

So when they saw that it had grown instead of shrinking like it was supposed to, they decided to do a skinny needle biopsy to make sure it wasn't cancerous. So basically all they did was give me a local anesthetic (sp?) and he stuck this needle in my throat 4 times each time taking a little bit out so they could test it. Normally this lump doesn't hurt or doesn't bother me in anyway, but after it "unthawed" it bothered me the rest of the day and gave me a headache besides.

I guess this was all bothering me more than I thought, because now that I got the call that it's not cancerous and they don't have to take it out, I'm so relieved. I expected them to take it out even if it wasn't cancer, but the doc says it's a really complicated surgery because there's a lot going on in your throat. He said if it was, say, on my arm, or some place like that, it'd be no problem and it would have been gone months ago, but since it's in such a delicate location, they don't do surgery unless it's necessary - whew!

So, sorry for being so long, but it's really like a weight off my shoulders so I thought I'd share.