Nagging Doubts

[justme1119]

Hi, I'm 58, female.  I have been having pain for at least 4 years in my neck and shoulder.  The pain in my neck and shoulder got worse after I got off all pain killers that I had been on for knee pain.  It was a struggle with the pain meds, and ultimately I got help and free of them.  When I finally went to a 2nd surgeon to diagnose the shoulder and neck pain, he said I have a SLAP lesion and wants to do surgery.  But the spinal MRI should a pretty large 22ml nodule on my thyroid, so I must get that checked out first.  Did an ultrasound and it showed several nodules on both sides of thyroid, but one hard nodule on the right side (same side as my neck and shoulder pain.) They did a FNA and the results came back benign.  My PCP is sending me to an endocrinologist and my appt. is on Mon., the 29th.  My shoulder surgery is set for March 10 if I get a free and clear from the endo.  My doubts are coming from other problems I've had going on during all this shoulder pain/neck pain and shots in the shoulder.  During the last two years I've had blood work that has showed iron deficiency anemia, they found a tiny bit of blood in my stool, so they sent me to Internal med doctor and I did all the invasive test in my insides to see if I was bleeding from anywhere.  They found nothing.  I then had low white cell count and my PCP sent me to an oncologist who gave me iron infusions and that brought my numbers up to where they should be.  Also, during this same time, I saw a pulmonologist for chronic cough.  He did all his tests and found nothing.  I told him at the time that the cough seem to originate in the throat.  I got the flu in March of last year, and afterward, my cough was still there but had lessened greatly.  I thought maybe I had coughed up something that was annoying my throat.  Going back to the current matter at hand, determining if I should go forth with a very painful, risky surgery (people have been know to come out of SLAP tear surgery with more problems than when they went in) when I am super skeptical about whether the thyroid problems are contributing to my pain.  The pain is on the right side.  Right now the most pain is under my right ear and in the muscle directly behind my right ear.  Any advice?  I really hope that my endo does his own testing before he releases me for surgery.

[Barb135]

When you see the endo on Monday, make sure s/he runs the proper thyroid blood tests to rule out hypothyroidism.  The tests you need are Free T3 and Free T4, along with the inevitable TSH that's always done.  Don't settle for just TSH, as that can actually miss thyroid malfunction.

Thyroid nodules are very common, but one that large could cause issues.

[1Kel12]

Your situation is complicated and frankly out of my league but I wanted to share I had intense left side only neck/shoulder/arm tingling & intense pain that first sent me to the docs and ultimately I was diagnosed hypothyroid. They said early on and to some degree now that it "couldn't be related to thyroid" (including my swollen lymph glands!) and even checked me for cancer. I also test negative for TOS issues etc. Nothing ads up for my pain other than "arthritis" but that shouldn't spontaneously resolve for 7 months either. The facts so far is that is resolved 100% with thyroid meds, I had a recent flare which coincided with my thyroid hormones slipping and I increased my meds and now its 95% gone again.

I can't say for 100% what the heck is going on with me but there is a relationship, even the docs are grudgingly admitting that now.

Surgery can't be undone, I personally prefer to rule out all options before heading down that road.

Good Luck, Kel