Different topic - what does thyroid fullness mean?

August 29, 2003

How about on to a slightly lighter topic. Went to a new doc, a DO, primarily

to be my general practitioner. Wasn't expecting any thyroid miracle info

from her and didn't get any, so I wasn't disappointed She's also in the

we-usually-only-check-TSH camp, but she was willing to listen. To her

credit, she at least didn't think I was nuts when I told her I feel terrible

and hypo with a TSH of 2.anything. She'll probably be fine for my regular

doc as long as I can get her to run FT4's at the minimum.

Now, she did feel my thyroid. She remarked that it felt " full " , that it had

a " fullness " to it. What the heck does that mean? It doesn't feel any

different to me. If it is full, I don't feel it. She also said it stuck out

a bit (not the exact words she used, but the general idea). Not enough to be

noticeable, but I guess enough so that if you felt it, you'd notice. I don't

notice it being any bigger. Other times when my thyroid has been " felt up " ,

the doctors have commented that it doesn't feel swollen or enlarged or that

it has even felt " full " . So what does a full thyroid mean? (perhaps it's

eating well!) I had 2 small adenomas on it in 7/01, and in 2/03 another

ultrasound showed they had shrunk. Does this fullness thing have anything to

do with those? That or I wonder if it's just a subjective thing. What feels

full to one doctor doesn't feel full to another, maybe? Would you notice

anything if it was full? Is this a hypo or hyper phenomenon?

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