Pain in large muscles

Hi Jan- I too, have a nodule. After reading the notes from the folks on this site, I feel better about my choice NOT to have it removed. I have been using acupuncture and boron therapy to shrink it with some success. I originaly was diagnosed with the cyst in 1998, and doctors gave no treatment. I had it retested regularly and in 2012 had not seen any increase in growth for 5 years. However, in the year and a half I was on the Levothyroxin, the cyst more than trippled in size.

My doctor offered surgery, however, it is a very diffcult surgery, very precise, possibility of nicking your vocal cords and winding up with a horrible, scratchy voice. They can't just remove the cyst, they remove the entire side of the thyroid. While you're still under, they have a pathologist check and if it appears by visual examination to be cancerous, they remove the other side as well.

Since then, I've had success with boron therapy for the hard part of the cyst and, acupuncture for the soft  part of the cyst, as well as getting off the levo and onto the NDT prescription... seems to have helped, as my compound cyst has shrunk dramatically. I have also been gluten-free.

Read through the comments from folks who've had their thyroid completely removed. It only gets worse once it's completely gone, from the comments I've seen.

 

Thanks, Catherine, for tellingme about your experience with the nodule. I will definitely find out all I can about it from the doctor before I choose surgery.  Did you have any problems with breathing or swallowing at anytime since you've had the nodule?

Even when the cyst was large, I didn't feel l ike it was a big hindrance on my breathing or swallowing, However, now that it's smaller, it does feel a little easier to swallow.  Keep in mind, one of the side effects of thyroid meds is having difficulties swallowing. Or if you have Hashimoto's your thyroid is very irregular, so you can have both high and low at the same time. so hyperthyroid causes difficulty swallowing. Is your cyst soft, or hard or combination?

I'm in the US and I was reading above that you folks in the UK can't get a preoscription for the natural dessicated thyroid. Is that true? Our prescription stuff isreferred to as NDT, and is pharmaceutical grade(purified some way, and concetrated to a standard) and is all pretty much the same except for the additives used by different companies. Brand names are Armour and naturethroid to name a few.  Our doctors do not prescribe completely natural dessicated thyroid product, as these unrefined and not concentrated products are sold over the counter (OTC) at the drug store. Like you would buy any natural herbal supplement or vitamin.

The whole treatment system here is horrible, and I thought it was super primitive. But it sounds like it's way worse in the UK, because you don't even have the NDT to choose from as a prescription, once you've gone through the whole process of getting a diagnosis.