Doctor's visit

[lesliepear]

I had my appointment with Dr. Tuttle today.
I finally saw the results of my ultrasound back in August at Hackensack Hospital.
There were 2 lymph nodes visible apparently. One tiny and one a little bit bigger (I don’t have a copy of the report, but will get it when I get my blood work). I think both Dr. Tuttle and Dr. Sofianides in NJ think they are dead lymph nodes, not cancerous (Dr. Tuttle said 80% chance). So the plan is for me to have an ultrasound next week with the top head/neck ultrasound person at Sloan. They will also be looking for blood flow to the nodes (that wouldn’t be so good). If my blood work today is ok, and the nodes are dead, I come back in 9 months, no scan or thyrogen. If not, the next step would likely be a biopsy (on the larger one) followed by surgery. I asked Dr. Tuttle’s fellow doctor (she said she was on fellowship and saw me first) about alcohol ablation but they do not feel there is enough data on it yet to do it.

I ended up seeing 3 people – the fellowship doctor, Dr. Tuttle and a new associate. Dr. Tuttle didn’t mind that I had printed out the thyroid cancer guidelines. He said he learned a lot doing it as the top people had put their heads together. I’m really comfortable seeing Dr. Tuttle, as he doesn’t mind if you read up on things and he’s also got a really nice personality.

I also saw a sign about a thyroid cancer support group meeting on 2/7 from 6 or 6:30 till 7:30 – but didn’t read the details as I can’t make it.

Comments

[goodjoan]

I'm glad the dr was open to you reading on your own time and having questions! I told my first neurologist that I was getting a second opinion and she got really mad. It made it very easy to leave her!

I hope the little nodes in there are nothing serious!

[butterflymama3.livejournal.com]

All in all, it was good news right? That's good.

[rodluvan.livejournal.com]

I hope the nodes are not serious. It's good they check it out. I will think of you and cross my fingers. I did test for uterus and it went wrong and I had to do it over again but this was because of a fault. I did not have any cancer. We also have x-ray for the breast I have ben on this too.

[luscious-purple.livejournal.com]

I hope it's nothing major and that you never have cancer again!

[kathykat.livejournal.com]

very same wish here for leslie pear...well said

[medievalcamelot.livejournal.com]

I'm glad your doctor is open to educated patients. That's a great attribute!

I'm thinking next week's ultrasound will be normal since the doctor didn't seem worried about the August results enough to call you back then.

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

True. In any case the kind of cancer I had is very slow growing. So even if it was bad, it hasn't grown much. But I hope it's nothing.

Also, the ultrasound guy at Sloan is an expert at thyroids/head and neck area and that's all he does. Hackensack probably has less fancy equipment (still a good hospital) and they ultrasound all parts.