I am a 54-year-old male retired firefighter from Ventura CA. I was having hand pain and numbness in November 2015. My hand ortho referred me to his spinal surgeon partner for an MRI of my neck. It was during this MRI that a nodule was noticed on my thyroid, which had nothing to do with any of my hand/neck issues, just discovered by chance. I saw my personal physician who ordered an ultrasound, which showed nodules in both lobes of the thyroid. Due to the sizes of the nodules, she ordered biopsies to be taken. The biopsies came back positive for papillary thyroid cancer even though my blood work came back normal. I was referred to Dr. Harari at UCLA. The pre-op appointment went well. I was immediately impressed with Dr. Harari, her staff and the UCLA facility. Dr. Harari conducted another ultrasound herself and found suspicious lymph nodes near my clavicle. I was sent to UCLA Santa Monica to see Dr. Katrina Beckett for biopsy. I was again impressed at the facility, Dr. Beckett and staff. My surgery was on January 7, 2016 with Dr. Harari at UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center. The pre-op staff was wonderful. I met with the anesthesiologist, Dr. Harari’s interns and Dr. Harari before surgery. Prior to surgery she planned to remove the total thyroid, lymph nodes below and to the side resulting in a 5-hour surgery. During surgery, 3 suspicious lymph nodes were biopsied, which all came back clear of cancer. This shortened the surgery to 3 hours. Dr Harari believes all the cancer was contained to the thyroid (now removed). I made it through recovery with no issues and spent the night in the hospital. The night staff was great, and I have never been in such a quiet hospital. I spent a very comfortable night and was discharged the following morning. I started taking 200 mcg levrothyroxine the first morning post op. I had a 2 week follow up with Dr. Harari. At this point, my scar had healed to a point where it is barely visible – amazing. I am scheduled for radioactive iodine therapy (RAI) next week. Overall, this has been quite an experience and learning process dealing with an unexpected curve ball in life. My main challenges were due to being thrown some unexpected news – cancer – and then trying learn as much about thyroid cancer and outcomes. Online support groups and the internet is good, but can be overwhelming and even misleading. I fell back to trust in my medical team and their treatment plan. I did not give this trust freely, they each earned my trust by their demeanor, history and actions. I feel very blessed and fortunate to have an excellent medical team from my primary physician, endocrinologist (Dr Westhoff-Pankratz) and Dr Harari. I give UCLA a 10 out of 10.