I'm a 47 yr. old African-American female. I did not kno...

I'm a 47 yr. old African-American female. I did not know that I had a toxic Goiter until June '05. Fortunately for me, my doctor was writing down my answers to questions about another condition I was having. As he was asking me questions, he looked me in my eye. He studied my face as I was talking. After I finished one of my lengthy explanations regarding his question, he asked me if I had a Goiter. Although I was new to this doctor as a patient, I was still upset about the fact that the last doctor that I had been visiting for at least 3 yrs, never noticed.

When I told him that I didn't know, he then proceeded to examine my neck. He told me that he was very sure that I had a Goiter and that it was rather large. He wanted it looked at by x-ray and ultrasound immediately. The x-ray was uneventful but the ultrasound was not as forgiving. He confirmed my doctor's suspicions and also raised the bar of concern by showing that on my left side, I had several cysts. On the right, there were at least 4 large "nodules".

My doctor then wanted to know the status of the "nodules". Were they benign (as he suspected), or were they malignant. He was very honest with me when he informed that that if indeed they were malignant, they would want to be starting my treatment as soon as humanly possible.

But after receiving a "biopsy" to determine what the status was, we found that the tumors were benign. Of course much to the delight of me and my family. The biopsy was no picnic though. This is not a procedure that should be done with just local anesthesia. "Laughing Gas", or anything in that league. A shot of Novocaine or whatever numbing agent they used on me was no help at all when the actual "digging into the Goiter" was done. I could feel every jab into it and it hurt very badly. I'm not a sqeamish one. I had 4 children all naturally without so much as a shot of demerol. (I had babies before it was fashionable to have epidurals). In the seventies and early 80's most women were afraid of them. This was much more horrific a thing to experience than all of my pregnancies together running concurrently.

Anyway, I wound up having to have the surgery because of the uncomfortability of the Goiter. It was so large that it was choking me really badly. I would choke off of my own spit. I was very afraid that I would choke on some food and no one would be there to give me the Heimlich. For the longest time, I had thought it was my sinuses draining down my throat. That's why I choked so much. Didn't know that the Goiter was huge and wrapped around my esophagus. It had even pushed it over to my left side. Although it was determined by a barium swallow x-ray that I could still send my food down my esophagus without any problems, they could still see where my breathing would be sometimes cut off because of the location of my esophagus.

Now I am currently recovering from my surgery. Total thyroidectomy. I can feel something missing in my throat when I cough. I feel like there's nothing there to help me push my cough out. My head also feels like it's been sewn back on like Frankenstein as well. My neck is still really swollen and I feel like there's a knot in my throat. My voice sounds a little funny. But, I can't tell if that's because of my cough. From what I understand, my parathyroid glands were not injured. But, I have a lot of phlegm and feel suspicious of some bronchial infection.

Pray for me. I'll be praying for you. Thanks. Lots of love. Micki

[i:29b16b0146]This message was automatically imported from the original Patient Experience[/i:29b16b0146]

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