| Entry # 3 - Ultrasound of My Thyroid Nodule: I am Sure it is Benign |
| My Story - The Beginning | |||
| Wednesday, 01 October 2008 00:00 | |||
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Walking into the ultrasound room made me a little uncomfortable. I was the youngest patient in the room. This reassured me that I was probably just fine. How could someone so young get thyroid cancer? I guess thyroid cancer is more common in younger people than one may believe...
So I entered the examination room and I proceeded to lie down on the medical exam chair. The ultrasound technician, Angela, came into the room and began to set up the medical equipment. Fortunately, I wore a wide neck shirt so this made it really easy for Angela to set up my neck in the correct position for the ultrasound. Angela set up the ultrasound then prompted me that she was ready to scan. She put gel on the ultrasound wand and placed the wand on my neck. There was no pain or discomfort. She moved the ultrasound up and down and side to side on my neck pausing and taking measurements. She started on my left side and isolated the nodule then proceeded to scan the right side. The entire procedure took about 10-15 minutes. While on the left side of my thyroid she showed me my nodule on the monitor. Then she pushed a few buttons and stated “your nodule is very vascular, this bought you a radioactive scan.” That’s pretty much all she said. So leaving the ultrasound I knew that the results were not ideal and I will probably have to have more testing. Bummer, I was hoping to be done. I am someone who doesn’t really like going to the doctor. I guess I’m the stereotypical male….avoid all doctors!
It took about a week for the radiologist to read the ultrasound and send it to my internal medicine doctor. My internal medicine doctor called me and said a few big words about my thyroid nodule of which I did not understand at the time. She then stated that she would put a consult in for the hospital surgery department. She reassured me that the nodule is most likely benign but that the surgeon would do a fine needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy to confirm this. I thought that was a good idea. Get a biopsy and be done. Here is the radiology report from my thyroid ultrasound: Realtime B-mode and Doppler evaluation Sonographic architecture of the lobes and isthmus is normal. Midportion and lower pole of the left thyroid lobe harbor a well-marginated mass with AP, transverse and craniocaudad dimensions of 12.5 mm, 16.7mm, and 28.5mm. This is very vascular on doppler evaluation. A thin sonolucent halo is seen about it which is even more vascular. Central areas variable diminished echogenicity are noted. Some of these are fine, linear and correspond to areas of increased vascularity. They are probably intrinsic vessels. No other focal mass or fluid collection. This mass slightly enlarges the lower two –thirds of the left thyroid lobe. The adjacent parenchyma appears normal. Isthmus normal. Size and shape otherwise are normal. No abnormal masses or fluid collection in the anterior portion of the neck. Impressions: Solid vascular lesion in the lower pole of the left thyroid lobe. While this could be a degenerating fibroadenoma, thyroid carcinoma is not entirely excluded. Surgical consultation is suggested.
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