Shortly before moving back to Illinois, one of my kids began seeing an endocrinologist because she had a goiter. The endocrinologist didn’t find anything concerning and wanted to continue seeing her for follow ups.

Less than a year later, we moved back to Illinois and after a visit with her new doctor, she received a referral to see an endocrinologist here. After some testing, she was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease. Since she wasn’t having any symptoms, we were told to follow up in a year.

A year later, that endocrinologist had left the practice and she began seeing another doctor in the practice. This doctor was more aggressive in how he wanted to handle her case. She had a battery of blood tests and an ultrasound on her thyroid. There were some abnormal results that confirmed her Hashimoto’s diagnosis as well as the discovery of a thyroid nodule. Instead of yearly visits, we went to see the doctor every six months. Prior to those visits she went thru the same battery of blood test and an ultrasound. The blood tests continued to show some changes, and the nodule has showed a very slight change in growth.

One of the changes in the blood work was a positive test for Celiac which resulted in a visit to the gastroenterologist which resulted in a stomach biopsy to determine if she did in fact have Celiac. Fortunately, she did not. What the biopsy did show was a positive result for lactose intolerance. Much easier to treat.

With the slight change in the nodule, an order was made for a biopsy of the nodule. This test was a little more concerning as the results were inconclusive. We couldn’t determine if the thyroid was okay or not, so we were referred to a surgeon to determine if surgery was necessary. The surgeon looked at all the information and used the Bethesda scale to determine that surgery was not needed at that time. The surgeon did suggest that a biospy sample be sent in for Afirma testing. This test determines a person’s risk of developing cancer and that recommendation was sent back to her endocrinologist for follow up.

At our next follow up with the endocrinologist, the doctor confirmed that he would be requesting a sample of the biopsy be sent in for Afirma testing. At the same time, he suggested that a follow up with the surgeon be completed.

A month later we were back at the surgeon’s office. He walked in and said, “You’re ultrasound results look good.” We thought we had wasted a trip, but then he began looking at her chart and found the results of the Afirma test.

She had a 50% chance of developing cancer and that risk was too high, especially for a teenager.

In less than 2 weeks, she will be heading to the hospital for a partial thyroidectomy. Specifically, she will have a Thyroid Lobectomy. The surgeon will remove the half of her thyroid that contains the nodule. That half of the thyroid will be dissected and carefully examined to make sure there is nothing else going on. If everything is fine, she will continue with regular follow ups to the endocrinologist. If they do find something, she will be scheduled to return to the hospital to have the remaining half of the thyroid removed.

Even though there were moments I felt the endocrinologist was being a a bit too aggressive with her care, I’m now thankful that he was. I certainly would prefer that she not need to go thru this, but she said it best . . .

“I would rather have the surgery than have to tell people I had cancer.”

So far, she’s handling it well. Her only real nervousness is knowing that she will need to get an i.v. (she did not enjoy that part of her stomach biopsy), but finding out that the i.v. will stay in until she leaves the hospital made her even more nervous. This will be an overnight stay, so at least 24 hours with an i.v.

This is far from the only thing happening in the World of Weeks, but this is where we need to focus right now.