Doctors say thyroid cancer occurs in women at a much higher rate than in men, teens or children. The thyroid is a butterfly-shaped gland in the front part of the neck. It has a left and a right lobe. It produces hormones that regulate functions such as a person’s heart rate, blood pressure and metabolism.

But when thyroid cells start to grow out of control, they can trigger thyroid cancer. As for why it shows up mostly in women, some medical researchers say it’s due to the female hormone estrogen. But other researchers say there is still no clear answer.

“I feel like it’s almost like a death sentence, even though deep down, you know, it’s not always that,” Pritchett said.

This year, the American Cancer Society says doctors will diagnose an estimated 44,000 Americans with thyroid cancer. The majority of them will be women, close to 32,000. Doctors say that in many cases, patients like Pritchett had no early symptoms nor family history of the disease. Pritchett says the lump on her neck tested negative for cancer eight years ago. It’s partially why she says she didn’t do follow-up testing until this year.

“I was thinking it was all going to be good,” Pritchett said.

But since her previous biopsy, the nodule became cancerous and attached to her vocal cord. Her surgeon had to remove her entire thyroid to reduce the risk of the cancer spreading.

“So, they got it out,” she said. “Then they had to scrape my vocal cord to try and get as much off as they could. But cells still remained on there and it messed up my voice for a couple of months.” Now, all she has to do is take a pill in January to kill the remaining cancer cells. But she knows it could have been worse if she had delayed her visit to her doctor.

I, too, personally learned the importance of following up on tests. I have no family history of thyroid cancer. I also had no early symptoms. But my doctor wanted to check a suspicious swollen area on my neck. I was at work in August when I got a call from my doctor, shortly before I headed to our Fox 8 studio to anchor the noon newscast. I found out my biopsy had tested positive for thyroid cancer.

It’s news that rocks you to your core. To this day, I don’t know how I completed the newscast that day. But I would later be grateful that it was caught early, because that discovery led to other medical testing. It’s during those examinations that a separate medical problem was detected -- inflammation on the nerve connected to my vocal cord.

During my surgical procedure, the surgeon removed the cancerous part of my thyroid, located on the left thyroid lobe. The team also successfully treated the inflammation problem linked to my vocal cord. But the road to recovery was rough. I lost my voice for several weeks. It is still healing and so is my surgical scar.

”It is always better to find these things the earlier, the better. They’re smaller, they’re easier to operate on,” Dr. Grayson Gremillion said.

The surgeon said that when thyroid cancer is not addressed early, it can stop a vocal cord from working and trigger other problems.

”You can feel strangled if they get real big, feel like you can’t swallow or have trouble breathing,” Gremillion said.

He urges everyone -- especially women -- to make sure they get their necks examined for potentially cancerous nodules at least once a year. A primary care physician or gynecologist can do the examinations in routine annual visits. The Metairie surgeon said doctors check for potential thyroid problems by feeling the neck from the front and the back. He also checks the neck when the patient swallows, another way to detect irregularities in the gland.

Fellow surgeon Dr. Michael DeSalvo says most of the diagnosed forms of thyroid cancers are now treatable with surgery, even when they spread in the neck. The most commonly diagnosed form in women is papillary thyroid cancer, which is the type found inside Pritchett and I.

“Ninety-five percent of those patients are still running around to the day,” DeSalvo said. “So, yes, very preventable disease.”

As for the surgical scar left behind from the incision to remove the cancer, DeSalvo says there are many creams and gels to help make them less noticeable.

”We generally try to find a skin crease to put it in,” DeSalvo said. “And from a cosmetic standpoint, it’s excellent.”

Pritchett said she is not bothered by her surgical scar. “I feel like that scar was my symbol of, ‘I beat this,’ you know?” she said. “So, for it being there, I’m kind of proud of it.”

That scar also is a symbol of Pritchett’s second chance at life. “She’s going to make it and she’s going to be fine and will have a long life and raise her children,” said her mother Sandy Lovisa.

The scar is a daily reminder of what she overcame. Pritchett said she hopes it also serves as a lesson for other women not to take health for granted. Doctors say while mostly women are diagnosed with this condition, men, teens, and children are susceptible. Doctors say that while this condition is more commonly diagnosed in women, men, teens, and children are also at risk. They strongly recommend regular annual check-ups, including a neck examination to screen for potential thyroid cancers, particularly for individuals with a family history of the disease.