Recently diagnosed with suspected recurrent thyroid cancer

FormerMember over 5 years ago

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Received the dreaded phone call from my ENT surgeon last week who informed me that he suspected my thyroid cancer has returned after 14 years. This was after COVID 19 lock down was announced.

Had two unsuccessful attempts at fine need aspirations. Added complication is that I also had Nasopharyngeal cancer in 2010 so have been blasted with chemoradiotherapy.

Surgery planned for this Friday. Worried it may be cancelled and scared of having a third neck surgery. I'm guessing the biopsy will be taken to confirm the cancer type. I just pray it's not a third primary.

Can't sleep. My mind is muddled. Whole life seems surreal.

FormerMember over 5 years ago

Hello , I’m sorry to hear of your suspected recurrence of Thyroid cancer, I too think the whole world and life seems surreal at the moment. Welcome to the online community and I hope joining gives your muddled mind a bit of help. It’s bad enough dealing with cancer for the first time, and without Covid19, so I am not surprised you’re feeling muddled and wondering if it’s 3rd time unlucky !!

As I'm awake to I wondered if I could help you find your way around the site. I noticed when I started my reply that you hadn’t joined any groups yet, so I’m going to suggest the Thyroid group for starters, as you mentioned that one first. You can find it by clicking on the link below.

https://community.macmillan.org.uk/cancer_types/thyroid-cancer/discussions

I’m sure the group will be supportive and if you should get a different diagnosis there is a group button near the top that you can click on and browse through the cancer types and cancer experience. You could browse the other posts to see if there are any you want to reply to and/ or add your own post which could be a copy and paste of this one.

It really helps others if you put a bit in your profile, it’s late/early so I can’t remember if you’ve done that but if not just click on your user name find the edit profile button, add a bit of what brought you here and press save. You will find mine is way too long but sometimes helps people know what types of experiences I bring along. After doing those two things you might find you’re tired enough to go to sleep ! If not I like to think of 3 positive things that happened during the day, to shift all the uncertainty thoughts, and recently I’ve tried not counting sheep but visualising a walk in a favourite place. I’m following the guidance for me that says I’m only allowed out into my garden not for a walk, and I’m so used to visiting a wood near by that when I can’t sleep I imaging the route I usually take and looking at the birds, muntjac deer and geese that I usually see. Sitting in my favourite shady spot by a big fish pond where the geese will be currently nesting, enjoying watching them for a while and watching the water glistening and imagining the sound of the fountain before I recall the walk back through the trees. My husband having used a mindfulness app called headspace, tends to fall asleep really quickly now.

Good luck for Friday, sweet dreams.