I finally got the test results back from the fine needle aspiration of my thyroid nodules! For whatever reason, the doctor that I am working with for my thyroid didn’t send me the results right away and waited until we had our next in-person appointment. I was getting pretty nervous because I figured that meant it was bad news. But thankfully, I was wrong!
Let me backtrack a little bit. I had blood results something like six months ago that showed markers for Hashimoto’s disease. My primary care doctor decided to do an ultrasound of my thyroid to see if I had any physical signs because my hormone levels were fine. This should have been quick, but the company they used for the ultrasounds happened to get switched out at the same time. This caused a delay, and honestly, I didn’t push very hard because I was dealing with a lot of other problems at the time. My primary care doctor said that Hashimoto’s mainly just messed with your thyroid levels, and mine were fine, so there wasn’t much urgency to it.
Eventually, I did get the scans done, and they found three nodules (lumps), with the biggest one being just under 3 centimeters. On the risk chart, two of them landed on a 4/5 for “suspiciousness,” which meant I needed to have a sample taken to see what they were. This got me to the current doctor who redid the scans and sent me to a place to have the aspiration done. The second set of scans was more focused, and they said they could see structures that pointed to Hashimoto’s for sure, but they still wanted to get the other results in to rule out cancer.
With the results in, I can now excitedly say that it wasn’t cancer. The other good news is that since they aren’t causing me a huge problem and my thyroid levels are still in the normal range, I can put off any other surgeries for a while. For Hashimoto’s, it is likely that if the nodules keep growing, they will remove part or all of my thyroid and move me to synthetic hormones to replace the ones the thyroid creates. It wouldn’t be fun, but it is at least a good solid solution, and I do know a few people who have had the procedure done.
Now that I have a diagnosis, the big question on everyone’s mind is, is this the diagnosis that I have been waiting for? I asked the endocrinologist (my thyroid doctor), and his take is that if my thyroid levels are looking fine, then he doesn’t think it is the cause of the nerve pain. The only thing he recommended was to see a rheumatologist because they can help confirm if I have any other autoimmune diseases that are playing a part in what is going on. Apparently, if you have one autoimmune disease, it raises the chances of you having others.
The current plan is to bring the data back to my other doctors while we wait for a rheumatologist appointment. I am on the waiting list for three of them, but everyone has a huge backlog. I am going to try finding some in other towns nearby and see if any of them might be able to actually put me on their schedule. My current care team is warning me that a diagnosis might not make a huge difference because there is no guarantee that it will be something that has a treatment besides what we are already doing. For me, this just means I have to stay focused on getting healthier in general and trying to stick to an anti-inflammatory lifestyle/diet as much as possible.
I do wish there was a simple solution to what is going on, but I hear more and more that I am a complex case. I met with neurology and cardiology in the last week, and both are telling me that there isn’t anything else they can do or test for based on my symptoms. My symptoms don’t fit nicely into one box, so both said the rheumatologist is the next step. The good news from all of that is at least I know my heart is in good condition, and I can keep pushing it. As I am writing this, my fingers are burning pretty significantly, but that helps me to stay focused on finding the answers and taking better care of myself.
Anyway, that’s all for now! I am going to keep posting on this blog because I am finding it useful to help me think through how I am feeling, even if no one is reading it. And if you are someone who is reading this, I hope you find my story interesting, and I hope that your own health journey is going well. Good luck out there!