A woman who could have skipped a routine appointment eventually decided to go—and her doctor found a hidden danger. Andrea Pugh-Kelley, 31, an environmental scientist, lives in Tallahassee, Florida, and was recently diagnosed with a rare thyroid cancer after a routine well-visit to the gynecologist. Her gynecologist checked her thoroughly, conducting a breast exam as well as the typical gynecological exams—and also checked her throat.
"I had never noticed anything abnormal with my thyroid or had an abnormal neck check," Pugh-Kelley told Newsweek. "We were just having a casual conversation about life and my career, and she suddenly stopped talking and immediately said she was recommending me for an ultrasound and a thyroid panel. "She said that she believes I had a swollen nodule and possibly thyroiditis.
I’m a research scientist, I fell down the rabbit hole of possibilities immediately." Pugh-Kelley ended up being diagnosed with oncocytic thyroid cancer, also known as Hurthle cell carcinoma, which can go undiagnosed as it generally does not cause symptoms until tumors grow large enough to affect other parts of the body. According to the Cleveland Clinic, this aggressive form of cancer that is most often diagnosed during routine checkups when a healthcare provider feels a lump on the thyroid. When symptoms do occur, they include difficulty swallowing, a painful lump below the Adam's apple, swollen lymph nodes, fatigue, and weight loss.
In Pugh-Kelley's case, she doesn't know when her cancer would have been found if not for her gynecologist, as she was unhappy with previous care she had been shown from her OB-GYN and primary care doctor, and this was her first time going back to her regular gynecologist after giving birth to her daughter. However, once she realized what it was, she began noticing "discomfort when swallowing, and the progressive raspiness in my voice." "I’m still very disturbed by the size of the tumor and how I didn’t notice it. Every doctor I consulted with, virtually or in person, immediately noticed it.
There’s no way that this wasn’t a rapid growth." She has since undergone a robotic thyroidectomy, where the tumor was found to be a solid Hurthle cell carcinoma. She will be undergoing further tests to check her thyroid levels, but is not expected to require further treatment at this time. Pugh-Kelley said it would have been easy for her to skip out on the gynecology appointment, as she put it: "Who genuinely enjoys going to the gynecologist?
I don't." "It's easy to skip out on yourself," she added, pointing out that women, especially mothers, may lose "focus on their own health while caring for young children." Her biopsy came back "undetermined" but noting prominent oncocytic change, and she said her gynecologist was "very shocked" at the results. Pugh-Kelley said she is "very grateful" for her gynecologist being "such a thorough physician," and she hopes that her story "will motivate her to keep up with her thoroughness and reinforce that it is necessary." She advised anyone hearing her story to "schedule every appointment under the sun," as "specialists are trained to look for things that you may not even know to look for. "Slow your doctor’s appointments down.
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