On April 8th, I will be undergoing an ultrasound guided?FNA (fine needle
aspiration) of some thyroid nodules that I have.
They will only be doing a biopsy on one of the nodules: 3 of the 4 are only
cysts, and they are not interested in those: but will be biopsying the one that
is "a complex mass inside a cyst": as that is more likely to be malignant,
although the chances are still low.

I have a couple of questions: how painful will it be, really? Apparently they
will not be using any
anesthesia: because sometimes using anesthesia can cause blood in the results
and interfere with reading them. Will it compare to, say, the pain of a shot? Or
worse?

And since it is ultrasound guided: am I going to have a lot of the "choky
feeling" that
I had when they did the original ultrasound? I felt really choky both by lying
on my back,
and also from the ultrasound pressing down on my thyroid.

Finally, when do they usually report on the results? Will there be some
preliminary results,
or will it take: a couple days? Or a week? Or what? And if I don't hear back in
a couple days is this "good news", meaning that preliminarily it didn't look
malignant?

I am feeling very worried about this: because my partner is a 3 year breast
cancer survivor,
my mother is a 15 year colon cancer survivor, and before my DAd passed away at
86 of other causes, he had had the beginnings of multiple myeloma: a bone cancer
(of course, he was a lifelong hobby
photographer at a time when this meant having?a home darkroom with many
chemicals,
and was also, by profession, a chemist: so this may have been environmental).?
No genetic link with my partner of course: but still it reminds me that these
things can happen.

In the meantime until I find out, will try to keep positive and realize that
cancer is unusual and these nodules are very common.

Laurie



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