| Re: 5 cm solid nodule, hard thyroid, high TSH t3 and t4... thoughts?
Thyroid cancer is rare, it's hard to discover, and it's easily treatable compared to other cancers and mostly curable. I had it almost 8 years ago, and it's now a distant memory---thyroid cancer patients lead long and healthy lives.
Males get thyroid cancer less frequently than women, but when they do have a nodule, it's more of a red flag. 5cm is large, more of a mass than a nodule. But what it could be, is a "goiter" an overgrowth of your thyroid lobe, that has gotten out of control (a normal thyroid lobe is around 4cm, so what you have growing out of yours is quite large).
Your blood work issue and the symptoms is likely from hashimotos--thyroid disease, but it could be from the nodule producing too much hormone at times. There is no blood test for thyroid cancer. Symptoms are related to the constriction caused by the nodule itself.
You need to find a really great surgeon---ENT, preferably a thyroid specialist that does many thyroids each week in a major teaching hospital. This is very big----though most nodules are benign, the only way to really know for sure is removal and pathology afterward to see if certain cells are encapsulated in the nodule or not. You might have an "fna" a needle biopsy, but on something so large, it will not represent enough cells to rule anything out. You will likely need surgery and it's usually not a bad surgery at all.
Also, sometimes even benign thyroids themselves grow out of control, and wrap themselves around structures in your neck, and can effect swallowing and breathing. Find a great surgeon, a quality endocrinologist, and go from there.
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