Fine Needle Aspiration

So, I now know what it feels like to have a needle poked into my neck several times, and cells being suctioned out. Not horrible, but not really pleasant either.

I called my new friend Cheryl this morning over at the ENT clinic. Talked to her at about 7:45. No openings today. At about 8:45 Cheryl calls back - good news. An opening at 9:30! So, I get to the clinic but didn't actually get to see a doc till after 11. I wish I had known, I would have taken a nap or something! lol

The long and the short of it: I have a lump in my neck (SURPRISE!!) that isn't large, but isn't small either. So, they did the biopsy thingy with the fine needle. Got a lot of cells out of my neck and will send them off to the lab. 3-5 business days for the results.

They stuck a LONG scope thingy through my nose into my throat. Under the thyroid lies a bunch of nerves that make the voice box work. Lumps on thyroids can squish the nerves and make it not work so good - both for talking and for breathing. I guess mine looks pretty good. But, due to the size, if it were to get much bigger it could potentially squish the nerves. Overall, cancer or not, they would suggest removal.

I asked all about the removal stuff. I asked couldn't they just remove the lump without removing that part of the thyroid. Nope - I guess the thyroid is a very...um - don't know what they called it, but apparently it would bleed TONS, so they have to take the thyroid too. The good news is that they'd only take the right half, and you can function normally on half a thyroid I guess. I'd only have to be on lifetime meds if they took the whole thing.

But I guess that's putting the cart before the horse a little. I'm not scheduling anything till I get biopsy results and get school started and see what schedules look like. Surgery would be an overnight thing, so to fit it in with the schedule would require a bit of work.

So - still not much more information. Just a lot more hurry up and wait. *sigh*