I found myself at UCLA through word of mouth, when the nodule was found. My mom mentioned that UCLA was a teaching and research based hospital and thus they are cutting edge and more open in general. I found Dr. Livhits through Dr. Hershman

Making the choice to have surgery was really hard on me. When having a large nodule, any decision comes to be hard. To come to peace with that, I stopped trying to control of the situation. I tried to instead move forward and not control the circumstance that I was in. When dealing with potential malignancy with cancer, I'd rather try and be safe than to deal with cancer that spreads. I'd rather deal with the results of surgery than with the risk of leaving it in. I still struggle with feeling confident in the decision that I made just because things are still uncertain. But this goes back to any decision you make you have to deal with. It just sucks to deal with your body producing something abnormal and then you don't know which way to go. After surgery, make sure you take lots of rest. Just because the surgery is on your neck, you should still take it easy and not risk over doing anything.

Although we started off on the wrong foot, Dr. Livhits was extremely sweet, compassionate, and understanding to what my needs are. She has a very nurturing charisma to her and she's very confident, so that you feel that you can trust her. I'm happy with the way my incision came out and I am lucky to have no complications.

Tags: cancer, Dr. Jerome Hershman, Dr. Masha Livhits, endocrine, Endocrine, Endocrine Center, Endocrine Surgery, endocrine surgery, Endocrinology, large nodule, malignancy, nodule, patient stories, surgery