A slight bulge in the throat, mild depression, lethargy, thyroid tests normal, what is the reason?
Thyroid test vaules in the upper limits of normal. Is a second opinion necessary?
The bulge in the throat has been there for a long time. But lethargy and mild depression used to be rare symptoms, but is becoming common now.
I had a similar problem, so I will tell you my story(hope it helps and doesn’t bore you to death). This all happened after I had my daughter…I don’t know if pregnancy caused it or if it was just coincidental. I first found out about my enlarged thyroid when I was sick. I went to the doctor for being sick, and she told me my thyroid was enlarged and wanted to run tests. I had felt it, but it wasn’t that large at the time, so I just thought it was a swollen gland from infection. I had my thyroid levels checked, and they were normal. I went to an endocrinologist and he checked my levels again…normal. At that time, he told me that my only option was to have it removed because he couldn’t treat it with medicine if my levels were fine. It wasn’t very noticeable then, and I couldn’t bare the thought of having my throat cut(he also told me insurance would not cover it because they would consider it ‘cosmetic’). Anyway, over the course of the next 2-3 yrs, it gradually grew bigger and bigger. I had my levels checked several more times and they were always normal. I finally went to a new doctor, and she immediately referred me to a surgeon. The first time I saw him, he said it needed to come out. He said the larger it gets, the more chance there is of getting cancer in it. He measured my thyroid and my left nodule was 6cm wide. In January of last year, I had my entire thyroid removed leaving nothing but my parathyroid glands. My thyroid had grown so large that it wrapped around my esophogus and surgery lasted 6 hrs. I now take thyroid replacement hormones daily. If it does not go down, I would highly recommend seeing a specialist. The scar is barely noticeable. They make the incision so that it fits right in with the wrinkles in your neck. I hope this gave you a little insight. By the way, I was never diagnosed with anything other than a simple ‘goiter’.
I don’t have any professional knowledge of this, but I believe that different people may possible have different ranges of what is ‘normal’ for their thyroid. I find it hard to believe that I had all of the above problems, and probably some I forgot to mention, and didn’t have even slightly low/high thyroid levels. I would see another doctor, if not for the simple reason as this: my surgeon told me that the longer the goiter sits there(and keeps growing and growing)the more likely you are to get cancer in your thyroid. Good luck.
Hypocondria maybe?
Sounds somewhat like mono – go back to your doctor and ask.
I do said yes
lymphoma
Even though your t4 (thyroid) or thyroid panel is normal, you can be developing a thyroid condition in it’s early stage. You definately need to get an ultrasound of the bulge. It could be cancerous even though labs are near normal or normal. This type of cancer easily goes undiagnosed frequently because regular PCP’s don’t know that much about diagnosing and they screen for thyroid only using the blood test you described above. Get a referral to a specialist if you can. Endocrine or internal medicine will usually diagnose.