Can a Nodule on a Thyroid Shrink Then Grow Again
Have you ever had thyroid nodules? Read the real life testimony of thyroid and Hashimoto's patient Cheryl and how she unmarried-handedly removed her nodules with iodine and selenium…fifty-fifty though she has Hashimoto's disease! ~Janie, hypothyroid patient and site creator
Remember: this is but Cheryl'south remarkable experience and information. Each person reading this has to decide for themselves or in working with their physician.
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My offset thyroid ultrasound came as I was fighting for proper thyroid intendance.
The new md I had just recently hired had decided that my thyroid looked "spongy." I knew that an ultrasound was a step up on the ladder that would eventually atomic number 82 to a diagnosis and therefore treatment.
Within three days after the ultrasound report, my doctor called me and stated she was referring me to an endocrinologist. Multiple nodules covered my thyroid and several were going to need a biopsy. It would be much later earlier I found out how many nodules I had and exactly what shape my thyroid was in.
To say that those words, nodules and biopsy, scared me would exist an understatement.
Never the less, I did what and so many of us do when confronted with a health upshot. I hit the Internet. Get-go, I looked up the words "Thyroid nodules." What exactly did that hateful? Was information technology a nice way of saying I had cancer? Thyroid nodules, co-ordinate to Mayo Dispensary, are "solid or fluid-filled lumps that form inside your thyroid." The article went on to country that most are beneficial (over 95%) and not serious. That was not plenty of a definition. I wanted, needed, and felt I deserved more information.
The next site, The American Thyroid Clan folio (which is adept with this info just lousy with other parts), said about the same thing, only adding that information technology was an aberrant growth of thyroid cells on the thyroid gland. I kept perusing the internet, reading anything and everything I could discover on thyroid nodules including the size at which a nodule becomes clinically significant (1cm and over) and needs a biopsy. I also found that non all nodules are solid abnormal growths but that some are the result of tissue breakup. Those are the fluid-filled cysts and can occur due to Hashimoto'due south.
Once I was satisfied with the information I gathered on the how and why of nodules- I made it my next mission to find out about biopsies of these "abnormal growths."
The biopsy, and was I going to die?
What I learned was that Fine Needle Aspiration is the preferred method to biopsy a clinically pregnant thyroid nodule, and the md usually performs information technology right in the role. The endocrinologist inserts a hollow needle into the "lump" and extracts a sample of cells for assay. It is a safe and relatively painless procedure.
The biopsy went flawlessly, equally they always do, and my results came back: The lumps, numbering 21, (with only 2 existence significant), were classified as existence hyperplastic (adnomatoid) nodules. Beingness benign, they mostly independent follicular cells, Hurthle cells, and some foamy macrophages. When I asked about treating my thyroid, the nodules, and medication, I got the usual reply. "Nosotros aren't doing anything. We are going to picket and wait." I left that endocrinologist's office with a sense of defeat. I was for sure I was going to dice and no ane in the earth was going to assist me.
The fighter in me did not stay downwards for long.
I was not going to "watch and await." "Not this girl," I thought. It was obvious to me that my thyroid was floundering and needed help! By the fourth dimension I got home from the follow up visit, about an hr and half away, I once once more hit the World Broad Web to educate myself on the pathology findings. The next stage of my journey for truthful thyroid care began.
In the days immediately following my biopsy results, my main intendance medico finally agreed to test my Gratuitous T3, Free T4, and both antibodies tests. When the results of those tests came dorsum, they clearly proved my suspicions. My thyroid was downwardly for the count. It was then that my doctor agreed to medication and natural desiccated thyroid was my option (T4/T3 can work well, too). She started me off pocket-sized with i 60 mg pill a day (…which is meant to be raised until nosotros are optimal. How we raise is also in Chapter 2 of the updated revision STTM I book).
But, I did not stop in that location.
I had nodules that the field of medicine had completely disregarded. I started reading on how to treat an under medicated thyroid. I read nigh what nutrients and supplements the thyroid had to have for proper functioning. I started digging into benign tumors and how to care for them besides. I, so, packaged that information into a regimen of supplements made easy past online ordering.
My regimen to begin with consisted of a working NDT (From Janie: this tin can too exist T4 and T3) and selenium . I started the selenium first because I understood that information technology was critical to the thyroid. So vital, in fact, that the body volition accept selenium from the encephalon for thyroid use. It was determined from the lab/biopsy results that I had Hashimoto's and I had heard that people with Hashi'due south should not take iodine. Through my research, though, I began to sympathise that those with Hashi's could take iodine but do need the selenium to protect the delicate thyroid. So, I started my selenium (400 micrograms a solar day). I began taking information technology a total ii weeks before my iodine. I did not want to have a Hashi'southward flare from taking iodine and knew the selenium would need a while to build upwardly completely in my system.
Iodine supplementation was side by side
I had visited several sites regarding the use of iodine to cure cancers and tumors. I had joined an iodine grouping and absorbed Stephanie Buist's information. I visited Breast Cancer Choices.org and found a ton of helpful information in that location as well. I educated myself on the many uses of iodine and the vital role information technology plays in the human being body. I learned that as important equally selenium was to the thyroid, iodine was just as of import. It is the principal ingredient in all thyroid hormones.
I was cautious with the iodine. I worked on building upwards a tolerance. I started with one drib of J.Crow's Lugol'due south 2% iodine solution a day for ane week. I and then "upped" the dose to 2 drops (6mg) a day for a week. So on and so forth until I exhibited "hyper" symptoms at which time I dropped dorsum down to the next lower dose. My trunk was set at 33 milligrams of iodine a twenty-four hours. I was going to heal my thyroid or dice trying.
(From Janie: going low and slow is a skilful idea with iodine. Information technology starts a detox of what we accept too much of in our bodies: bromide, chloride, fluoride, etc. This is true for all but especially true if you have Hashimoto's.)
What happened next has left many, including my physician, declaring a miracle.
3 months later on the initial ultrasound, my doctor ordered a repeat. The results left her scratching her head and claiming divine intervention. In three months, I had lost 14 smaller clinically insignificant nodules. Fourteen nodules on my thyroid simply disappeared. When I asked her, "How does that happen?" her response was "I don't know — God." I smirked merely I knew it was the iodine and selenium I had religiously been taking.
Equally an experiment, and to confirm to myself what I already knew, I did come up off the iodine and selenium, for a while, to encounter what would transpire. I told no 1 what I was doing, as I wanted to run across information technology for myself, without influence or interference. For four months, I took no iodine or selenium- simply the Armour. The following ultrasound showed a new nodule. That was proof enough for me. I went back on the iodine and selenium and continued to take my Armour, which, my md had upped to 2.5 grains a mean solar day.
At present, three years subsequently, I am nearly "lump" free.
I no longer have whatever clinically significant nodules. In fact, I simply have 3 nodules and the ultrasound reports shows that they are shrinking besides.
However, that is not all. For the first time since my fight for thyroid care began, my thyroid itself is no longer swollen and is in "acceptable normal limits," meaning it is a "normal" size. While I know my thyroid will demand consequent life-long intendance, as I do have Hashimoto's, I no longer feel like I am a slave to my supplements or that my thyroid is more of a burden than a approval. The fight for my thyroid, as long and equally backbreaking equally it has been, has been worth it. The "the Siamese sisters of the thyroid," what I now call selenium and iodine, have given me my thyroid, and consequently, my life back. The ultrasounds alone prove it.
Cheryl
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Read more virtually selenium. Here's good data about iodine.
Keep track of whatsoever United states of america-made desiccated thyroid products. There were three that were rightly recalled in 2020, for example.
Do yous experience hyper-like symptoms when you try to heighten a working desiccated thyroid or T3 in your treatment in order to get optimal? That tin can point to an adrenal issue. Read here.
Take you lot raised a working desiccated thyroid or T3 and still experience hypothyroid? Read hither.
And this is your patient-to-patient volume, beneath, with Hashimoto'southward. Society hither.
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Source: https://stopthethyroidmadness.com/2014/08/02/case-missing-thyroid-nodules/