What clinical analysis did the doctors use to determine you had a tumour in the thyroid?
The doctors did not carry out any analysis. Instead, they performed a palpation and found a lump in my neck.
What kind of tests did you go through in order to have this kind of tumour diagnosed correctly?
I had a sonography with a tap and a posterior study of the biopsied tissue. The cytology’s result indentified psanoma bodies and the suspicion of the presence of neoplasia follicular, which was enough to consider surgery.
How was the surgery and the post-operation?
They were two operations. The first one was a thyroidectomy, since the nodule was small (15x8 mm) and located in the isthmus. This meant the probability of saving a great part of the gland. Once removed and biopsied, the result gave a pathologic anatomy of papillar carcinoma, which meant a complete removal of the entire thyroid gland.
The second surgery was conducted a month and a half after the first one. In both cases, the postoperation period was normal, considering that at the beginning, the analgesics that they gave me helped make the pain bearable. The worst moments could be graded with a 6 out of 10.
I passed the first night in the Intensive Care Unit for any possible complications that could happen. During my stay at the hospital (three days) I carried a drainage with two tubes emerging from the neck through two lateral openings, which ended up being pretty uncomfortable. What amazed me the most and caught me off guard, was the aphonia I acquired. I could talk, but my voice suffered considerably everytime I had to talk for long periods of time.
How was the recovery process?
My recovery at home was pretty comfortable and not very painful. The aphonia heals slowly but even now sometimes it reappears. The healing is good but it requires a lot of care. I had nuisances, which continue until today: sometimes I have problems swallowing, or weird sensations in the neck or low sensitivity in the operated zone.
