Cathie, (Scarlett on here) needs help with getting back on the site and in the meantime has asked me to post for her. I'm going to try to copy her email to me and in the meantime, I'm going to see if I can send her a link and instructions.

""Dear Billye:

Please see if you can help me. I am unable to get on the website for some reason and I am just desperate for help here. I had my second thyroid biopsy and am going to have to undergo surgery-a full removal of my thyroid.

I don't need someone to tell me what to do. What I need is to find a doctor who can tell me which method of thyroid removal will be best for my situation-namely the least invasive and least traumatic to a patient with additional medical problems. I am getting ZERO here in Dallas. The old techniques, open surgeries, are the way things are done here, even at the medical school. There is minimally invasive or endoscopic surgery done, but only on the Parathyroids.

I have a wonderful surgeon who could do the surgery the way it is normally done, but no one, not even the Endocrinologist, knows anyone in my area I could consult with on other surgical options.

There are several different methods of minimally invasive surgery, all involving different means of removing the thyroid. Some doctors go through the breast, some go through the axillary area (underarm), there are others I am not even sure I have come across yet. All of this is too complex for me to understand.

If you could please copy this note and post it to the site, I would be most grateful. Again, I am not asking someone to tell me WHAT to do. I know what needs to be done-my thyroid has to come out. I just need to find a doctor with overall knowledge of these various minimally invasive techniques, so he/she can guide me to how it could be best done under the circumstances.

Sorry to burden you with this. I know you have your own problems, but I don't know what else to do here.

Thanks,
Cathie""


Billye