So....I went to the ENT on Monday. He is going to send me to a sleep center at a local hospital for a full sleep study. That was the not-so-surprising part of the consultation. The surprising part was when the nurse practitioner, who did my work-up before I met with the doctor, was palpating my neck area and asked, "Now Alice, when is the last time you had an ultrasound of your thyroid?" I told her I've never had one done. She proceeded to ask me a lot of questions about my hypothyroid condition. Then she told me that I have a "nodule" in my thyroid......yup, a "nodule." Nice medical-terminology for lump or cyst. She had the doctor come in and feel it also. He found it right away. He explained that 95% of thyroid nodules are benign and just need to be watched, while 5% are malignant. My next step will be to have an ultrasound with a fine needle aspiration (biopsy.) I love how in the medical community everything has a nice, neat euphemism or acronym: nodule, FNA.....it enables us to speak about serious things without saying scary things like "lump" or "biopsy." They also talked to me about the possibility of my thyroid problems actually being Hashimoto's disease, which would explain a lot about why I'm having such a hard time getting my thyroid medicine regulated.
Here is a link to the Google Health page on thyroid nodules. You'll notice that they say "lump" right away. They also have a link to Hashimoto's if you scroll down the page.
I'm so glad that I know Who is in control of all of this, and that He is the same "Who" who loves me and gave Himself for me, to ransom and redeem me, and who works in me to conform me to His image. He has taught me to rest in Him and have peace.
UPDATE: My biopsy is scheduled for next Wednesday 10 a.m.
1 comment:
What can be felt as a single nodule can be a group of small nodules( which greatly reduces the risk of the cancer); nodule without blood flow in it is rarely cancerous.
God bless!
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