Does your neck feel enlarged or is there a lump in the neck?
There are chances you have a thyroid nodule. But don’t worry as it doesn’t mean you have cancer. In Fact, only 10% of thyroid nodules are malignant.
It’s best to get a check-up and; unfortunately, if you have been diagnosed with cancer, the next step is surgery.
Valeria Simone,( M.D ) believes that you must consider the following things before you undergo the surgery.
1. Ask these important questions to the doctor
Question 1. How many thyroid cancer surgeries does the doctor perform each year? ( If the doctor is experienced, he would have performed more than 100 thyroid/neck cancer surgeries annually.)
Question 2. What is the type of thyroid cancer you have? And how many surgeries of those type has the doctor performed?
( If the surgeon says you have a rare case and if he hasn’t done many surgeries of your case then you should definitely take a second opinion and go to a doctor who performed your type of surgery.)
Question 3. Do your newly diagnosed patients undergo another thyroid or neck surgery in a year? If so then how many? ( This number should be minimal, preferably less than 1%.)
Question 4. Do you closely work with an endocrinologist, radiologist and pathologist as a team? ( It’s crucial that all your doctors collaborate and work together and all of them are confirmed about the diagnosis and treatment provided. This minimizes surprises during and after surgery.)
Question 5. How will the surgery affect the metabolism regulation system of your body? ( It shouldn’t be affected drastically because even if a portion of your thyroid gland is removed, it may still produce enough of the required body hormone that can sufficiently regulate your metabolism.)
Question 6. What are the risks of undergoing this type of thyroid cancer surgery?
Question 7. How much discomfort will I have after surgery?
Question 8. What is the recovery time of thyroid surgery?
2. Never rush into surgery after the diagnosis
Thyroid cancer is a very slow-growing cancer so it’s not a race to remove the tumour at the nearest possible date. Anaplastic thyroid cancer is an exception to this as it’s a fast-growing cancer.
With thyroid cancer, you’re not in a race to remove the tumor as soon as possible.
Even if your cancer has spread to the lymph nodes then also there’s not an urgent need for surgery.
So, research your options, take time to get a second and third opinion and find out the right surgeon who would perform the surgery perfectly minimizing any chances of resurfacing of cancer.
Did you know specialized care has a lot of health benefits?
Getting diagnosis and second and third opinion at a major cancer center like MD Simon is important. This is because MD Valeria Simone has a specialized health care team which studies each and every aspect of thyroid cancer surgery. Not only that they give me all the details regarding the procedure of surgery, experience of each doctor performing the surgery, and the side effects or after-effects of surgery if any.
You can contact their doctors personally for queries and moreover they perform their operations with the latest cutting edge technology which gives exact precision and the diagnosis is exact too.
In this institution, we have the most number of clinical trials in the world for medullary and anaplastic thyroid cancers.
In fact, it doesn’t matter the type of thyroid cancer you have, Southlake General Surgery hospital has a specialized team that can help guarantee you have a well-thought-out care plan. This significantly reduces the chances of recurrence of your and the need for another surgery.