N/A,
My thyroid issue was originally spotted on a routine annual exam with my primary care doctor. He detected swelling in my throat glands on a routine feel of my throat. He then refererred me to the ENT specialist who felt a "firm nodule" on my thyroid and ordered an ultrasound and needle aspiration biopsy of my thyroid which confirmed that I have a papillary carcinoma. Believe me when I tell you my neck looks normal and there is nothing I would have ever seen or known to be a tumor. The issue was spotted by two medical experts feeling my throat and thyroid.
Earlier in this thread LouJr. raised the question of whether surgery is the only treatment option for a papillary carcinoma. Attached is a very interesting NY Times article suggesting that surgery may be an aggressive approach as these cancers often do not grow and can be monitored non surgically:
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014...ancer.html?referrer=
I spoke to someone who has a confirmed small papillary carcinoma and his doctors are monitoring it with sonograms every 6 months.
The chief risks of surgery are nerve damage to the vocal chords jeopardizing one's voice (something I make my living on as a trial attorney) and taking synthetic thyroid hormone for the rest of one's life - it can be tricky trial and error to figure out the correct amount needed individually and meanwhile your weight and energy fluctuates.
If it turns out my cancer is also in my lymph nodes surgery is absolutely necessary and further testing next week will hopefully determine whether that is the case. I am also seeing an endocrinologist Monday who will take blood tests and later administer the radioactive isotope if surgery proceeds.
I will post in a couple weeks when all test results are back from the second round of tests on my lymph nodes.