Carolyn M.

Appling W Douglas Md - Rosewood Ent

I owe my life to Dr. Brauchle. I went in to have my hearing check, and as part of his exam, he noticed that I had a nodule on my thyroid. He said that most of the time they are nothing and are very common but that I definately needed to have it checked out. It turned out that I ended up needing a biopsy and that it was cancer. I had absolutely no symptoms, so they only way that this was detected was by Dr. Brauchle's thorough exam. I had been to my PCP about a month before for a checkup, and he didn't detect this, however, he referred me to Dr. Brauchle because my hearing is not good. Dr. Brauchle was very reassuring when he told me about the cancer and that he thought it was very treatable and caught early. Because of the type of thyroid cancer (one of the rarer ones and can be heriditary), he wanted me to go to MD Anderson. He reached out to a colleague there and got me in to see her within 2 weeks. It's very hard to get into MD Anderson, so because of his contacts there, he was able to get me in with a fantastic surgeon very quickly. They did a complete workup, and fortunately, it had only spread to my lymph nodes. When it is at that point, it is very treatable, but once it spreads beyond the neck area, it is not very treatable. I had surgery within 2 weeks, no chemo or radiation because of the type of cancer, one year ago. I am very proud to say that at my one-year follow-up, the cancer has not returned. I owe my life to Dr. Brauchle. I am a single mom raising 2 kids whose dad passed away 8 years ago. Had Dr. Brauchle not found the nodule, my kids might be losing another parent. I highly recommend him. Not only is he a good doctor, but has a wonderful, caring bed-side manner. I can't say enough great things about him.