Please watch this short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPBk7eDRNNU&t=8s 

Nothing was there and then in the blink of my eyes it was there…..a huge lump on the right side of my neck. It was a Saturday night. My husband, being the caretaker he is, insisted that I call Kaiser first thing Monday morning. I told him it would probably be gone by Monday. Nope, it was actually bigger by Monday morning. The first Doc saw me on Wednesday. She did a blood test to check my  thyroid levels. They were perfect. No hypo or hyper thyroid going on. They did an ultrasound and found 3 nodules or the medical name Goiter. Not sure I like that word. Has a strange sound to it! These Goiters were 2 centimeters, 3 centimeters and 5.1 centimeters in size. She immediately referred me to an Endocrinologist. Anything over 4 centimeters they are concerned about. I showed up at the Endocrinologist appointment the next week and had a biopsy done. I’m sure glad the details weren’t offered to me before the appointment! My husband watched as they inserted a needle in my neck three times to get tissue from each nodules. The report came back negative for cancer but I was told later that the big goiter they still can’t be completely sure about until they remove it. Remove it? Yes, it needs to be removed because it will grow and cause difficulty breathing and swallowing. These are pretty important body functions, so let’s get those babies out of there! Off to the neck and head surgeon I go! I’m happy I was not told that he would be putting a tube up my nose and down my throat to see of the nodules were up against my vocal cords. That was a lovely experience! Good news, they are not effecting my vocal cords! Now I wait for a surgery date. I know that all will be well. So why am I sharing this with you?

It kind of shocked me how fast these goiters appeared. I was told by two doctors that they don’t just appear, it takes months and months for them to develop. Because of what we do for a living, I beg to differ. I would have noticed the smallest lump in my neck nonetheless a 5.1 centimeter lump! 

I’m sharing so you’ll be aware when touching your clients. From the day you read this moving forward, please really feel your client. Don’t just touch….feel! Be aware of any little or big thing that you feel and let that client know. 

Goiters are more prominent in women than in men and typically in women of middle age. I’m definitely middle age at 58! More often than not it’s not cancer but boy as Estheticians we sure don’t want to be the Esty that didn’t feel it on a client and it turns out to be a bad diagnosis.

One other thing I wanted to share is that I spoke with both Physicians I’ve seen about the pieces of equipment we use on our clients and on ourselves. I wanted to know if anything we do (LED, microcurrent, rf, ultrasound) could have caused this or could it make it worse. The answer from both Docs was no it can not. That was a relief to me. I really didn’t want to hear that all the anti-aging things we do could be the cause of this health issue. So rest assure that nothing you’re doing to a client will bring about anything like this!

I’m going to keep documenting this process with more videos and posts. I will begin using LED right after the surgery to speed up my healing. 

Thanks for reading and please heed what I said about being aware of your clients!