September is Thyroid Cancer Awareness Month
Have you had your neck checked? Some thyroid cancers, which can occur in all ages, are aggressive and difficult to treat. Luckily, early detection saves lives. So does prompt treatment and life-long follow-up.
Dr. Shatul Parikh, Director of the Northwest ENT Thyroid & Parathyroid Center, offers quick ultrasounds and biopsies for those with signs and symptoms of thyroid cancer. These often include a lump, or thyroid nodule, that can be felt in the neck, trouble swallowing, throat or neck pain, swollen lymph nodes in the neck, cough, and vocal changes. Once found, thyroid cancer is mostly treated through surgery - a surgery of which Dr. Parikh has done several thousand times. He specifically specializes in Minimally Invasive Thyroid Surgery, primarily defined by little cosmetic evidence of the procedure. The difference between conventional thyroid surgery and minimally invasive thyroid surgery speaks volumes, and is the reason patients continue to choose Dr. Parikh as their ENT provider.
CONVENTIONAL
- 3-4 Hour surgery
- Requires an overnight stay in the hospital
- Large incision with stitches
MINIMALLY INVASIVE
- 35-45 Minute procedure
- Able to go home 2 hours after surgery
- Less than a 1-inch incision with no stitches
Dr. Parikh also specializes in Minimally Invasive Parathyroid Surgery. Gwen, one of his past patients, wrote about her journey with a parathyroid condition on a personal blog - Gwen's Nest.
"I decided that if I was to ever have surgery, that the TOP priority for me was to use a surgeon that was very, very skilled and experienced with parathyroid removal," she states.
She chose Dr. Parikh based on his skill and specifically appreciated his "method of using ultrasound to locate parathyroid tumors prio