So where to start?

I guess we start at the beginning.

I have always been an overweight person. From the time my feet hit the ground I was the fat kid. One of my most earliest memories is being in the doctors office and him saying "She's a perfectly healthy child. Except her weight." And so began 40 years of "diets." Could that be part of what has lead me to where I am...maybe...maybe not.

My thyroid history really I guess in a way begins with my grandmother. Growing up Granny had a massive goiter. When they finally removed it around 1980 it had grown up behind her ears and down into her chest. It was so large they had to go down to labor & delivery to get forceps to "deliver" it.

Then there's my dad. He was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in January 2004. He had his thyroid removed and has had three rounds of radioactive iodine (I-131). He's been cancer free every since. He does have one spot that continues to light up on scans but it's been in the same spot since the beginning and hasn't moved or changed so they figure it's scare tissue.

So, back to me. In July of 2009 I had a weight jump. Over the past few years that hadn't been an unusual thing. I ended up getting really high fever (105 to be exact) and ended up at the doctor, he found nothing. A week later still nothing. Saw another one of my docs in June, he didn't pick up anything with my thyroid. In July I saw my new family pract doc and I mentioned that my weight had jumped up again...she felt that my thyroid felt a little enlarged. So she sent me for an ultrasound.

The ultrasound was not pleasant. The girl dug around on my neck for what seemed like forever. Now mind you, I was in the process of being for herniated disks in my lower back so laying in that odd position for so long really started to take it's toll, but I sucked it up and hung on cause it couldn't be much longer....oh yeah, she still had to do the other side...UGH. My throat hurt for at least two weeks. A couple of days later my doctors office call to say that there was a nodule and wanted to do a referral to an ENT (ear, nose, and throat for those who may not know). Thanks to my dad's cancer I knew exactly who I wanted, so I asked them to change the referral to him and also send me a copy of the report. When the report showed up, it had not one but five nodules noted. Five. I'm sorry, but that is a BIG difference from one. I'm sure she didn't want to freak me out but hey, I'm a strong girl. If I can survive losing a husband to lung cancer at 35, I can handle hearing I have 5 nodules on my thyroid.