Follicular cancer - wondering what's next

Ten years ago, any cancerous lump meant you've have lost the other half. 

These days, things are taken much more on a case by case basis and your MDT will consider all the aspects of your cancer before deciding what to do.

I wouldn't want to say which way that decision will go, but you shouldn't have to wait very long to find out.

Thank you for taking the time to respond - yes fingers crossed it's not too much of a wait - keeping a list of questions for the next meeting - lucky consultant lol ;-) x

My lovely oncologist - who sadly retired during Covid - once said that we shouldn't assume that doctors are annoyed by lots of questions. Often they are more annoyed that you DON'T have any questions. Then they think there's no point explaining things to you if you've not shown that you understand.

He said it's like taking your car to the mechanic. If you just hand it over and come back later to pay, the mechanic is probably not going to explain all the details about what they did. If you turn up and have an intelligent conversation about what you think is wrong, they're much more likely to want to tell you what they think.

Too many oncologists have seen patients go into 'rabbit in the headlights' mode when they just know that you're not taking in anything that they say.

What a great analogy - I've been jotting things down as they pop into my head so hopefully we should have all bases covered at the next meeting. :-)

Hello, I have just joined and was diagnosed with follicular cancer with a nodule of 3.2cm, mine was found after a left side removal. I was wondering how you got on, what route they went for with you? x

Hi there... hope you're keeping ok. I had the one side containing the cancer removed and now I'm being monitored for the next 5 years with scans and blood tests :-) hope this helps ... xx

Hello, thank you for taking the time to reply. We're you given an option to have it all removed? I'm debating whether it's better to go all the way? Do you have any other nodules on the side they left? Thank you x

Hi - they did say I could have the other side removed if I really wasn't happy to leave it alone - but to be honest they seemed pretty confident that they'd removed it all and I didn't relish going under the knife again if it wasn't really deemed necessary. I definitely did think hard about it though particularly given that my cancer was found by accident and at the time, general consensus was that it was just a benign nodule that didn't really need removing  I think my surgeon was as surprised as me when it turned out be cancer! I did wonder if they'd been able to get a decent needle biopsy that confirmed it was cancer beforehand, whether they'd have just removed the whole of my thyroid rather than just taking half ... but it wasn't a question I asked. I think I have nodules on the other side that are benign. Hope this helps :-) x

Thanks, I'm thinking of having the other side out as I don't know how I can cope with always wondering, only thing I'm worried about is the side effects if the drugs. How often do you have scans and blood tests?

Hi VicWig
Don't torment yourself with thoughts of 'what if they'd got a better sample'.

If you have follicular, no amount of needle tests could have given a positive diagnosis. The docs can only confirm it by examining the whole lump.