You're over thinking it and scaring yourself, because thyroid cancer is quite rare and you can't come up with cancer, just from a swollen thyroid; however, if you want to put your mind at ease, you could have some tests to make sure it's functioning properly, even if your doctor doesn't think it's a big deal...
A swollen thyroid is called a goiter and it's possible that you could have nodules on your thyroid. Like a goiter, nodules are usually nothing to worry about, but it's good to know they're there and to keep an eye on them. A thyroid ultrasound will tell you how swollen your thyroid really is, whether you have nodules and whether your thyroid has any unusual characteristics.
Also, since you have hyper and hypothyroidism in your family, and apparently, you have a goiter, there's a chance that you may become hyper or hypo, yourself. You should ask your doctor to do thyroid function tests just to make sure your thyroid is functioning properly.
Tests to ask for are Free T3, Free T4 and TSH... don't let him get by with just the TSH, which is actually a pituitary hormone, not a thyroid hormone and make sure the T3 and T4 are Free and not Totals...
If you really want to go the extra mile, you can ask for antibody testing to determine whether or not you have an autoimmune thyroid condition - either Graves Disease or Hashimoto's Thyroiditis...Graves Disease is always associated with hyperthyroidism. Hashimoto's is, typically, associated with hypothyroidism, because that's what it ultimately ends up, but there are often periods of hyper in the beginning, alternating with hypo and/or normal...
The definitive test for Graves Disease is Thyroid Stimulating Immunoglobulin (TSI). The 2 tests for Hashimoto's are Thyroid Peroxidase Antibodies (TPOab) and Thyroglobulin Antibodies (TgAb). You need them both, since they are both markers for Hashimoto's and some of us have one or the other, some both.
Do I really think you need all of this? Not necessarily, since you have no symptoms of, either, hyper or hypo... The advantage of getting the antibody tests is that if you have elevated TPOab or TgAb, the chances of developing hypothyroidism is pretty great and a swollen thyroid is quite common with Hashimoto's. If you find that you have Hashimoto's, you'll be able to monitor thyroid function more closely and be ready to treat hypothyroidism if/when it appears.
Thank you for answering my question. You helped me calm down a bit with the information you gave me. But the problem is that my whole thyroid is not swollen it's the right side according to my doctor and that is why I feared thyroid cancer. I looked up swollen thyroid on one side and that came up that's why I said that.
Many of us have only one side swollen, but we still don't have cancer.
Hi there...just wanted to chime in to hopefully calm your fears, I had significant left side only swelling, including lymphs and I developed victors nodule. The swelling was significant enough it pushed my trachea to the right and you could see it in the xrays. My victors nodule is apparently a well known cancer signature, docs were concerned for a bit.
I had screening, biopsies etc and there is no cancer and my victors nodule went away.
Just fyi. Kel
edit: Virchow's not victor. erg. annoying auto check interference :)
Thank you every one for your replies you guys have helped me a lot. I feel more at ease and I'm just gonna watch it over time and see.
The part of my neck that is noticeably swollen seems to be the muscle area. Lower right above my collar bone. I don't think that's thyroid anyways. Seems to be the muscle but it's odd that it swelled all of a sudden right after my right tonsil hurt. I have a horrible sore throat today woke up with it. I'm also thinking it may be from wisdom teeth but not sure because my lower right one is impacted and my right face seems to be a little swollen. Maybe it all connects