Thyroid Biopsy

In addition to being wrong about weight loss curing PCOS, the endocrinologist was wrong about how the thyroid biopsy was performed. I’m really starting to not trust her at all, honestly. Sadly, there are limited options for endocrinologists in our area and it is notoriously hard to get appointments, so I’m sort of stuck. She told me they cannot numb the area when getting a biopsy and so they just use a numbing spray. I remember the numbing spray from when I had to have my toenail removed and it does help, as long as the nurse has a steady spray on the area. Fortunately, having a needle jammed into your thyroid is not as painful as getting an infected toenail removed or having an infected dog bite scrubbed two times daily. On the pain scale, thyroid biopsy registers as a mere discomfort, akin to getting a cavity filled or having a hysterosonogram biopsy. The only pain was the pinch of the first needle, used to inject lidocaine into my neck because no numbing spray was used. According to the doctor, there is a national shortage on the drug that makes lidocaine not burn when injected and so it burned. It felt just like a bee sting, only instead of hurting and throbbing for hours or days, it gets numb after a few moments. Then, the uncomfortable part, where the doctor jams a needle into my thyroid and pokes it multiple times to get a tissue sample. The worst part was concentrating on not swallowing because that makes your thyroid move. They have a pathologist in the room to check the sample and make sure it has enough tissue to test, which the first poke did not get. So, the doctor stabbed me again, taking a second sample. Getting a thyroid biopsy is not an easy task, apparently.

 

Today I’m feeling a little sore and my neck is a little swollen, probably because I eschewed their advice to put ice on my neck. Um, hello it’s February? The doctor doing the biopsy assured me, as every doctor has, that my thyroid *looked* ok, so nothing to really be worried about. I don’t know when I will get the results, but I will have to go back to the endocrinologist for that information, which I’m not looking forward to, but whatev. I’m glad the biopsy is over and that the anxiety waiting to get it done was really the worst part of it all.