Monday, April 27, 2009

Thyroid Nodules & Panniculectomy/Abdominalplasty Surgery

This is a picture of what a typical thyroid looks like with 1 nodule. Mine however has several nodules.


About a month ago at my annual Doctor's apt, Dr. Tong felt what she thought to be lumps in my thyroid. An ultrasound confirmed there to be multiple lumps or nodules, in my thyroid.Thyroid tests confirmed that everything was working just fine. Now, one would think that with a perfectly working thyroid, everything would be ok right? Wrong. It is the total opposite. If your thyroid functions are bad, this means that the nodules are from the thyroid being bad, and not from something such as cancer. If the functions are good, there is no real purpose of the nodules, so this makes the doctors worry.

Because they found several nodules, and some of them are larger than 1 cm, we must take action and have them biopsied. Unfortunitally a special ragiologist does this procedure, and I am not able to see him until May 21st. Sounds like an eternity to wait, when infact it has its purpose. They want to see if the nodules grow within that month's time.

After the biopsy, if cancer is detected they will simply remove my whole thyroid. If nothing is found, they will monitor the growth of the nodules, and check them every 6 months. Apparently nodule biopsies aren't 100 accurate, so they like to keep a close eye on them. If they continue to grow, cancer or not, I will have to have them removed.

My Endocrinologist says that 90 percent of nodules are not cancerious, but because mine are so big, we have to consider that an option. It is good to know however that of all cancers, this is the best one to have because it doesn't spread, and is easly removed by taking the whole thyroid.I guess for now, life just keeps plugging along, and we wait for the biopsy. If they continue to get bigger and bigger, and this keeps interfering with swallowing etc, measures to shrink them will be the next step.

I hope I was accurate in all of the information above. It really was a lot to grasp today.

I think it would also be a good time to inform everybody of my surgery comming in June. I will be going to Dr. Becker in Bismarck for a paniculectomy and abdominalplasty. This is surgery to remove the panis of skin that hangs overmy panty line, and tighten my stomach muscles. After my last c-section, my stomach muscles were sewn "crooked" so to speak. Basically my stomach is straight, and it has a dip. Now at 300lbs, I didn't care in the least that it was crooked, but now being at 170lbs, it is really bugging me. I will go in on June 2nd, and they will correct this defect, and tighten my whole abdomen 360 degress around my whole body. Close to 10lbs of skin will be removed, and tightened through abdominaplasty. A scary procedure, but something that I have really worked for after 3 years of losing weight. I bet you all can't wait to see those pictures. hahaha

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