The thyroid gland isn't the most popular gland in our bodies, but it controls practically every cell. It even has a hand in how fast our hearts beat.
When it's out of whack, it can send you into a hormonal tailspin.
Last summer I was diagnosed with nodules on my thyroid gland, one of several Thyroid conditions.
27 million Americans suffer from some form of Thyroid disorder. According to the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists half of those are undiagnosed.
The butterfly shaped gland is right above the collar bone with two lobes wrapped around your windpipe . doctors call it one of our body's master glands.
"Thyroid diseases are more common than Diabetes. People are familiar with what diabetes does. The majority of the population has no idea what Thyroid disease is," said Ochsner Internist Dr. Maureen Hecker.
Hecker says 75% of patients in her practice have some form of Thyroid disorder.
In a routine checkup last summer, she uncovered a condition that caught me by surprise.
"I noticed on one side of your neck it look asymmetrical, and I felt a nodule or a bead that shouldn't have been there."
Hecker scheduled an ultrasound of my Thyroid gland which revealed three nodules on the right lobe. The size of one of them concerned her. It was 2.4 centimeters with calcifications that made it suspicious. An Endocrinologist performed a fine needle biopsy that revealed pre-cancer cells. The only way to know for sure if there was a malignancy was surgery.
Dr. Ronald Amadee performed the procedure that took about an hour and a half to complete. I had no family history of Thyroid cancer, and my chances were very good that there was no cancer. It turned out the nodules were benign, but each year more than 12,000 americans find out they -do- have Thyroid cancer. Carol Patai is one of them
"My body got to where I couldn't go anymore," Patai said.
Patai is an artist, a mother, and a grandmother who was always full of life, but noticed over the last year a lack of energy and a swelling in her neck.
An ultrasound revealed four large nodules on the right lobe of her Thyroid gland and two on the left.
A surgeon removed all of her Thyroid gland in June.
"When they did put it under the microscope the cancer was about as big as a pin head," she said.
Doctor Amedee says most Thyroid cancers are very treatable. He sees many cancer patients coming to see him 30 years later for some other problem.
In Carol's case there was no radiation. To replace the natural hormones that the Thyroid produces, she will take a pill everyday for the rest of her life.
In my case only the right side of my thyroid gland was removed. Doctors say the left lobe is functional and should be adequate as far as secreting the normal amount of Thyroid hormone in your body.
The benefit of surgery in my case is the 100 percent certainty the nodules are benign.
Dr. Hecker gives this bit of advice, "Whenever there's a nodule present that's one centimeter in size it needs to be investigated somehow."
