It was February 2004, and I was about to marry my soul mate, Dave, in Wellington, New Zealand.
My parents were over from the UK for our wedding and extended holiday. The excitement was in the air!! Then my Mum said something in passing to me that she had noticed a lump in Dave's neck!!! So I mentioned it to him and examined his neck. Mum was right there was a reasonable size lump in his neck.
There really wasn't much time to do anything about it directly, until we returned from our honeymoon. Highly recommend Hawaii by the way!!
Anyhow once home, Dave got a referral to an endocrinologist in Wellington where he was scheduled to have a Fine Need Aspiration (FNA) but nothing was reported on the results.
Because of this Dave was then referred to an Ear Nose and Throat specialist, Dr Peter Blake.
Dr Blake examined Dave and said the lump on his neck was a goitre and that it needed to be removed. A goitre is a swelling of the neck resulting from enlargement of the thyroid gland.
So Dave was scheduled for the surgery. The lump was removed along with half of his thyroid gland. These were taken away for biopsy. Unfortunately the results returned as being positive for thyroid cancer. Thankfully the cancer cells were contained and had not spread.
Due to these results Dave had to return to have the rest of his thyroid removed. All was removed successfully and there was no need for follow up radio or chemo therapy.
With Dave now not having a thyroid he takes daily medications of Thyroxin.
Since the removal of the goitre and thyroid Dave has been very healthy.
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