Thyroid - here we go

SarahsMom

Hi ladies! Typing on my phone, but I've had a sore and swollen throat since before the holidays, no other symptoms. Tried 3 rounds of meds with no luck. Basically my throat hurts every day and every night. ENT did a scope and saw a small abrasion on my voice box, so she thought maybe night reflux (although I've never had tummy problems) so gave me nexium to try. All it did was mess up my tummy :-(. So with that experiment failed, I was thinking of making a new ENT appt. well over the weekend, I was sitting on the couch and felt something swelling in my lower throat/esophagus areas I got so scared that I became light headed. After a few hours, it felt like it went down a little. Skip ahead to this morning - I wake up and the left back side of my tongue hurts like I've bitten I'd burned it, it was throbbing. I get in the car for the school run and take a nice swig of coffee and...nothing. I taste nothing but bitterness. So i freak and start tasting gum, food, everything and I have no sense of taste at all.

I went to the ENT on an emergency visit and have a large nodule on my thyroid and a salivary gland issue on that left side where my tongue hurt. I have a thyroid ultrasound and CT scan with IV/dye on Wed.

Anyone else ever have these issues? I know thyroid and breast have been connected in several big studies.

At least my 6 month breast appt is over. But I had a FNA of a sneaky cyst seen only on ultrasound- doc looked at the fluid and thought it was fine and did not need testing.

Sigh. Thanks for listening ladies!!

april485

If it isn't one thing, huh Carpe? So sorry hon. Hoping it all turns out ok. One of the women on the rads board also is having an biopsy on her thyroid and another woman said she had this too? May very well be related to breast issues. Hoping it all turns out well. Hugs!

SarahsMom

Thanks, April!! I forgot up mention that I am borderline hyperthyroid with low TSH. Just adding to the medical body of knowledge out here!!!



I am thinking about you this week, sending good thoughts your way!!

SarahsMom

Of course mother nature would bring a snowstorm the day of my neck CT w/dye and thyroid ultrasound...still suffering with no answers. Everything was rescheduled to next Wed. Unless I take extrastrength tylenol now, it is too uncomfortable to eat anything other than oatmeal, pudding, etc. I can feel the nodule or growth getting bigged, whether it's in my thyroid, esophagus or larnyx, I don't know. Always feels like a lump in my throat. Can't wait to find out what is going on so we can address this issue, been suffering too long, arghhhh.

Thanks for listening, whomever might stumble on this thread.

april485

Oh man Carpe, so sorry about this. We ended up with 17 inches and initially they said 3-6! That really sucks. Can you have some soup? At least that is nice and nutritious? Hoping you get answers soon. Hugs!

farmerlucy

Carpe - Sorry for all the trouble. This response will probably be of no use, but about 3 mo past my dx, when I weaned myself too quickly off the xanax, I started to get what felt like a lump in my throat. The more I thought about it the worse it got. I'd be fine when I woke up, but once the brain started in on the dx, there it would come again. On top of that between the meds and anxiety I started to get a burning sensation in my chest and throat, sometimes to the point it would burn my nose and the back of my throat. I felt like I was being choked. Finally a wise dr said he thought it was just the anxiety. Over time the anxiety has reduced, and I have been on other anti-anxiety meds since July. The lump has gone away for the most part, but sometimes If I go back to the darkside I can make it come back. Now I just understand it better.

Forgive me if this is completely off the wall. Toss it in the "for what it's worth pile".

I am hypothyroid, so I had my levels checked and that is fine. I was on big time prevacid-like meds too, that helped but never completely got rid of it. I even had an upper-GI because I was convinced the acid was eating away at my stomach.  Once the gastroenterologist identified it as non-erosive gastritis I felt better, and that too helped with my anxiety. I'm off the prevacid now, and will be off the klonopin in a couple months. Geez - I've never taken meds before!

Take care and I hope you get some answers!

SarahsMom

Thanks so much April! And farmerlucydaisy, I do believe in the mind/body connection!! Thanks for sharing your story. I also have something wrong with a saliva gland, in the back, left part of my mouth near the side of my throat that had the messed up tonsil. The doc said she can take it out (?) not sure what that means exactly, or if I would have a drier mouth? Or maybe that gland isn't working, which led to a dry mouth and throat probs, who knows. I am just so tired of this, my throat hurts every second of every day and night at this point. I would gladly take Xanax right now if it would help! Ugh. Well I'll keep you all posted on the appt next week. She can feel a nodule on my thyroid for sure. Frustrating :-(

midnight1327

Hi there,  i am going to be seeing an endocrine specalist as i am Hypothyroid, and have ben since birth, but the  GP, MD as you call them i think, noticed a swelling on the left side of my throat and he got me to do this swallowing thing and he was quite concerned as  my TSH is elevated and it is saying that i am not getting enough, my iron levels are extremely low, also my ferritin. i get a copious amounts  of reflux which they are testing for and a colonoscopy 23 April, it is quite complex,this thyroid bussiness, have not got a time as yet to be seeing the thyroid doctor and i am wondering, well gettin  more convinced that thyroid and BC are connected as they are based on hormones, thyroid is  the hormone that controls your metabolism, they did tell me at the time of my BC DX that my cells were very busy and very angry and my tumour was  1.5, and not shown up as a lump when they discovered it, but said, that if my prognosis would of been very grim, had it been discovered as a lump. it was small, but nasty and i am wondering if thyroid has a bit to  contribute to that situation.  I am a complicated being actually, as  i was born minus the thyroid gland, so my medical history is very comlicated and the only ones that knows what i was like are my parents, mother now, as she was the one who attended to all that happened, i just about lived in Hospital the first year i was born i survived tho. as here i am. thanks for reading.

SarahsMom

Thanks, Midnight - you reminded me to have my feriten iron levels checked.  I've always been too low in iron to give blood (my sample drop floats :-)

I went in for my CT, etc yesterday. They had a bad time getting the IV connected, multiple sticks in both arms by multiple people. they finally figured it out. One nurse told me I was dehydrated (duh - can't eat or dinrk 4 hours before the event which was at 10 - did they think I would drink water all night) so I said - how do you start IVs on severely dehyrated people then? Hah. Don't blame the patient because you're all having problems getting it to work. I had some great veins. Anyhow, did the CT then the thyroid ultrasound, which was painful only because of them shoving that wand into my adam's apple, throat, etc. I tried to peek at the screen - she was measuring something, I can tell after years of breast issues. I'll know next Wed for sure, so until then, living like there is no tomorrow, because who really knows, right?!

I hope it's just a harmless nodule but wonder if there is a "fix" if it is bothering me so much with swallowing, clearing my throat, etc? Can they take it out?

leaf

I had a solitary thyroid nodule (a benign adenoma, ~1-2 inches) and had half of my thyroid removed.  Even though it was benign, they said mine could grow and eventually interfere with breathing/swallowing.  I didn't actually have any problems breathing/swallowing.  They left the other half of my thyroid because it looked fine.  I've been on thyroid replacement since then; my dose has gradually increased over the years.

Hope yours is as benign as mine was.  I also had a friend who had thyroid cancer, had it surgically removed, and she's totally fine.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002193/

SarahsMom

Thanks, leaf! I appreciate the info and the link, you're the best. I'll know on Wed next week what is going on and will update everyone.

This morning before the school run I made my travel mug of coffee and my daughter's travel mug of tea.   She took a swig of hers and said mom, this is your coffee! I tasted both and there was no difference to me - guess I was tired and mixed the mugs up. Flavor wise, there was no telling tea from coffee.  Thankfully I can taste sweet things and flavors, but food with a more bitter or sharp taste, nothing.  I don't know where it went or why, and if it's ever coming back. Strange! I am not freaking out about it, though, it is what it is and I'll deal with whatever the tests show. I know it could be much worse.

Hope all is well :-)

cyano

How did things go?

I have about 1/2 a dozen nodules on my thyroid. My ENT biopsied them twice and negative for cancer. Blood tests showed that I have Hashimoto's thyroiditis, but there's no need to do anything unless my thyroid hormones are out of wack or I have difficulty swallowing.

cher1

Hello all.  In 2005, my internest suggested I go in for ultrasound/biopsy of a possible thyroid nodule.  I had the biopsy(s) done, 2 biops on a total of 4 nodules.  1 on left side, 3 on right side.  The 3 were solid, the 1 on the left side was vascular.  Removal of my thyroid was recommended by 3 docs and was scheduled pretty much as soon as they could get me in. 

Last spring, I was diagnosed with breast cancer, Left breast.  Caught it very early but still underwent lumpectomy and a 2nd to get clear margin.  diag with dcis/microinvasive. 

I did read some articles after my breast cancer, about the possible connection between the two.  I never asked my doc if there was a connection.

oropallo

my thyroid quit after chemo. On natural thyroid now. Will ask at Onc appt about checking thyroid to be sure?

leaf

Thyroid problems in women are very common. One paper I saw in the 1990s found that in 25% of the autopsies there was microscopic evidence of Hashimoto's disease. (This did not mean they had clinical Hashimoto's.) This site says in the US, the incidence may be something between 0.3% and in Colorado, up to 9.5% of women had an elevated TSH. http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/120937-overview#a0156

Depending on your symptoms/predicted cause of hypo/hyperthyroidism, you undoubtedly be followed. When a person I know was being treated for Graves' disease (hyperthyroidism) with radioactive iodine (to kill her overactive thyroid), she had a standing order for TSH, and was getting tested every couple of weeks.

I have Hashimoto's, and when they have changed by thyroid dose, they wait about 6 weeks after the change to get a new TSH level, because it takes some time to let everything come to an even level (called steady state.) They check my thyroid level every couple of years. If I have symptoms, they check it more often (like every year.) I have very mild disease, and I have never been correct in predicting whether or not my TSH was high. However, I heard of one person who had such bad Hashimoto's she couldn't get out of bed for a week and her TSH level was something like over 100. (Normal is something like up to 4.)

SarahsMom

Hi Leaf! I totally forgot about this thread until you posted on it yesterday. How are you?

Well I had my CT with dye and ultrasound back in March and they didn't see anything. I was having that horrific throat pain, felt like I'd swallowed a chicken bone, could feel swelling, etc. They scoped me many times and didn't see anything. One doc thought she felt a nodule on the thyroid but the scans showed nothing, other than an enlarged thyroid, which I guess I've had for a while..so the diagnosis was silent reflux!No kidding! For someone who has never had stomach issues or an ulcer, I was really surprised. They gave me zantac which I take occasionally when I know it will be a stressful time - it actually does seem to help. Also I sleep on 2 pillows now. Honestly, my throat hurts every day but I block it out.

Anyhow, skip ahead, I had to move to the Middle East in August, so bit the bullet on all things medical and here I am! I hope to lose some weight and get into better shape and health here, the DC lifestyle was as unhealthy as you can get. Sort of in denial, I supposed, but rolling the dice. I needed to be here with my family. There are tons of modern hospitals and doctors from the US and UK here, so if I need to, I'll go in. For now, I just think this is the "new normal" for me and press onward. My maternal aunt that had breast cancer in her 50s (double mastectomy) and thyroid cancer (in her 60s) just died, she went in at the very last minute after a bad fall, and was loaded with bone and all sorts of CA. I don't know if they did an autopsy or not but I am sure interested in which cancer was which....that side of the family is very hush hush and proud (dang Italians!)

Hugs to all of you wonderful ladies!

leaf

Hi there! I'm so sorry you went through that scare! I'm so sorry about your throat pain - that must be really irritating to have throat pain every day. No wonder you were scared - your aunt had thyroid cancer. I'm so sorry for your loss. When I was small, I thought doctors had a solution for every ailment. It took me quite a while to figure out that wasn't true.

I sure get it about relatives being hush-hush about cancers and other causes of death. About 100-150 years ago, when my relatives were back in Europe, it was said that one distant relative was in an institution for much of her life due to 'heart problems'. Her 'heart problem' ended up being a 'broken heart' - i.e. a mental illness. The usual stigma of mental illness. More recently, another relative had both breast cancer (which she ignored) and then lung cancer on her death certificate. She smoked heavily all of her life until she died. So I'm guessing she had two primaries, but I don't know.

I'm so glad you have good medical care at your disposal in case anything comes up for you. I am so glad you are where you are needed with your family. Please know I am thinking of you on the other side of the world and know you are doing hard and difficult work there. You are one of the very special people.