Table 3.

Themes and supporting quotes

Surgery subsample
Decision to undergo thyroidectomy quickly and with a sense of urgency	“I just knew in my heart…‘No, I just want to remove it.’ And that was it.”
Perception of PMC as a potentially life-threatening disease	“Cancer is cancer.”
Fear of disease progression and unremitting uncertainty with active surveillance	“Watching could literally be deadly.”
Surgery as a means of control and potential cure	“Every doctor made it sound as if after the surgery that’s it. This one’s treatable, curable. Just take it out and that’s it.”
Active surveillance subsample
View of PMC as a common, indolent, and low-risk disease	“…it’s the slowest growing. It doesn’t spread quickly…it really takes a lot of neglect for it to really get rampant, if at all.”
Concerns about adjusting to life without a thyroid and becoming reliant on hormone replacement medication	“…your thyroid is not your tonsils. It’s not your appendix…it’s an important part of your body…”
Openness to reconsidering surgery over the long run	“I have an optimistic attitude about things too and say, well let me see. You can always go for the surgery when things get worse.”
Common themes between subsamples
Deep level of trust and confidence in physician and cancer center	Surgery: “For him it’s a Tuesday morning. It’s, ‘I’ve done these my whole life. It’s no big deal. We’ll get you in, we’ll get you out.’ And that’s that.” Active surveillance: “He sees these things every single day…He experiments on these things and he would know if it was going to grow fast.”
Use of physician and internet as primary sources of disease and treatment-related information	Surgery: “We relied on Dr. [X] a lot. He definitely calmed me down and he provided a lot of information about thyroid cancer and the surgery.” Active surveillance: “Really just Dr. [Y]. He is the one I really trust and so he is the one who told me about everything.”