When I was 45 years old, I started having numbness over my entire body, and my mouth started to droop, similar to Bell's palsy. One day, I felt entirely strange, and I thought I was having an aneurysm. I called the doctor, and he told me to come in right away. Once I was at the doctor's office, he could feel a large lump on the right side of my neck. I had never noticed it before, but it must have been there, because it was very noticeable. He sent me to a specialist, and through radioactive testing, they discovered it was a nodule on my thyroid. The doctor scheduled me for a thyroidectomy. He said they would check for cancer during the surgery, and if it was cancerous, they would take out the whole thyroid. If it wasn't cancerous, they would only remove half of the thyroid. The primary tests showed no cancer in the large nodule, but later testing showed cancer in the smaller nodules. Ten days later, I had the other half of my thyroid surgically removed. The cancer was papillary and follicular. I did not have any treatments other than surgery, as I was in the very early stages and the cancerous nodule was small. They told me my thyroid was full of nodules. Thyroid problems run in my family, with my sister having Grave's disease at the age of 15. I used to take Synthroid, but now I take Armour on a daily basis. I have less ups and downs with the Armour.

I had no symptoms. My GP thought I had lupus and sent me to a Rheumatologist. After several months and as many blood draws, I was told I did not have lupus, but I had a small nodule on my thyroid. I was then sent to another doctor. An ultrasound gave the size; needle aspiration was not possible due to the location of the nodule. I was given 3 options. 1st--wait and watch; 2nd--med and hope it became smaller; 3rd--not recommended but was an option was to have the nodule removed. Since I had 2 kids in high school, and their father had died when they were six, we (all of us together) decided it did not belong there and have it removed. When I saw the surgeon to schedule, he laughed and said if I was a man the surgery would be almost an emergency since theirs were usually cancerous. When I came to in the recovery room, the nurse mentioned that I had a total thyroidectomy. I knew at that point mine was cancer.

I have a lump in my neck and it gets worse when I eat.

I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer at the age of 36. About six months before my diagnosis, I felt panicky with increased heart palpitations, claustrophobic, scared and insecure to travel long distances I have also lost my appetite. I am depressed and I experience numbness sometimes in my lips. I had my whole thyroid gland removed and did the iodine pill. I had to be away from my children for 3 weeks due to the radiation that I was reflecting. I know take 150mg thyroxide per day. The doctors are trying to keep me slightly under hyperthyroidism. I will be going to the oncology clinic in November for my check- up and I am upset and afraid. This is a very upsetting experience.

I had a scratchy throat and on and off hoarseness. Then a feeling my throat/windpipe was swollen inside. I initially attributed the scratchiness and internal swollen feeling to allergies and associated sinus drainage. A feeling I was being choked if I turned my head certain ways. Then an obvious goiter and swollen lymph nodes at the front of my neck appeared. This all happened fairly quickly, within four to six weeks or so. Blood labs were normal. A scan of my neck that confirmed a lump on the right side of the thyroid in addition to the goiter. I then had a needle aspiration biopsy.

I had no symptoms I recognized as being thyroid cancer. The year before my diagnosis I gained about 10 pounds, but thought it was just stress because my grandmother had been diagnosed with ALS. In retrospect, my voice became hoarse, too, but I have allergies and asthma, so I never suspected anything out of the ordinary. My nodule was discovered during a routine physical exam. I never noticed it, even though it was 3 cm when it was found.