Friday 8 May 2009

RAI or Thyroidectomy?

Hoping this remains a hypothetical question for me, but I'm curious to hear other folks opinions on it...

Its becoming more and more clear that my thyroid gland is becoming more and more unstable. The latest set of bloods have me very hypO, even more than I was a couple of months back.
TSH is 18.3 range 0.15-3.2
my FT4 is apparently "below absolute low"...which is interesting, surely the lab should be able to detect it somehow, no matter how low it has dipped.

I've had noticeable goitre on the left side of my neck for years, with nothing to show on the right hand side. But, suddenly, in the space of 7-10 days the right hand side has now swollen to larger than the left, and is incredibly uncomfortable...breathing, swallowing, neck movement, all compromised.
My neck looks like a bullfrog, and my voice is so hoarse I sound like bullfrog too!

Due to see my endo on the 19th of May, but my GP has advised me to think about the fact that my Endo will now very likely suggest either surgery to remove it completely or RAI treatment.
For the record, I'm 35, married, no kids, but would like to think about having children in the reasonably near future, if I can only get this thyroid to behave itself.

So, throwing this 'hopefully' hypothetical question out to blog-land...if you were given the choice of surgery to totally remove the thyroid gland, or RAI treatment which one would you go for, and don't forget to say why?

Thanks in advance

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