Enlarged Thyroid, Normal TSH Normal
For the last 3 weeks I’ve had trouble breathing, chest pain, and a cough even though I didn’t feel like I had a cold. I ended up going to urgent care thinking I might have pneumonia or something. The doctor couldn’t find a reason for my symptoms but felt that my thyroid was enlarged so he ordered an ultrasound and tested my TSH levels. My TSH came back normal, but the ultrasound found a 3.3 cm mostly cystic nodule on the right side of the thyroid.
I was surprised since I had been in a car accident six months earlier and had CT scans and it hadn’t come up. Today I logged into the hospitals portal and saw that they had seen it on my CT scan but apparently no one mentioned it to me! The size was 2.9 cm then, so it has grown.
I have an ENT appointment in a couple weeks but have some questions:
-
Can this lump be causing my symptoms? The urgent care doctor thought they were probably unrelated and suggested maybe I was having heartburn so put me on Prilosec which so far isn’t really helping me.
-
Is it normal to see growth in the nodule when your TSH is normal? What else might be causing it?
Posted Apr 12, 2018, 9:41 PM UTC
This is pretty common... thyroid enlargement. Cystic nodules may require treatment, but your levels aren't out of whack so they will probably just monitor. Expect to have some testing to verify not cancer.
Enlargement can cause discomfort in the neck/throat, when looking down for example. Usually doesn't cause an actual problem though and doesn't cause coughing usually.