Total Thyroidectomy

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-26-2006
Total Thyroidectomy
16
Tue, 12-26-2006 - 11:24pm

Hi I am new here and I have some advice and am in need of some also! I am 30 years old and 2 months ago I had a toal thyroidectomy. I was terrified before surgery, but it ended up being silly. I had no reason to worry! Everything went great!

Almost 2 years ago I had my son. After having him I went to a new Family Dr. and they had me do some blood work and my TSH numbers were off, so I went again and they were still off, that is when the nightmare began. I went for blood work every 6 weeks, annual uptake scans, numerous ultra sounds, visits with the endo, a biopsy (that was worse than surgery in my opinion), etc..... I had nodules on both sides, the right side (cold nodule) was a little over 1 cm and the left side (hot nodule) was 3.8cm. It had taken full control of the thyroid. I had 2 options, surgery or radiation. After doing tons of research I opted for the surgery. That is when the endo sent me to the surgeon and he suggested only taking the left side, but I insisted on taking the whole thing, which in the end was the right decision. The surgeons analogy was the left side was Arnold and the right side was Danny (from the movie Twins). The right side was shriveling up and was no longer functioning. When I first found out about the nodules it was Grave's Disease by August of this year it had progressed to Plummer's Disease. (I blame my family and my husband's family, 90% of the men are plumbers, LOL) So my advice is if you have to have the surgery don't stress. I stressed so much because I was going to have my throat slit, people die from slit throats, I have 2 young children, etc..... It was no big deal and the recovery was sooo easy. It took longer to recover from child birth than it did from this surgery.

Now my question is will I always be tired and emotional? My mood swings are horrid! I am taking levoxyl, but it has only been 6 weeks, please tell me it gets better!!!

Sorry this got so long, but I don't know anyone that understands how I am feeling about this! My husband is very supportive, but he just doesn't understand!

Thanks,

Nicole-moody in AZ!

Pages

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-26-2006
Wed, 12-27-2006 - 5:53pm

Nicole,
I thought the same thing about the cancer not coming back. My dr said that it can return in the lymph nodes, starting in the neck. I have to go to my surgeon every 3 months for 3 years.

What a great husband, your very lucky.. Do you work or do you stay at home?

Dyan :)

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-26-2006
Wed, 12-27-2006 - 6:00pm

Wow, I had no clue! I will definately pray for you! I am very lucky to have the husband that I have. I couldn't have asked for a better husband :)

I am a Stay at Home Mom! I will eventually go back to work, when Tyler goes to kindergarten and I will work part time so that I can be home when my kids are home.

Do you work?

My daughter is on Winter Break and we took her to Ca. to visit my husbands parents and I am missing her soooo much! She will come home on Friday, but it doesn't seem like it is soon enough. The baby is waking up now, so I better go : )

Nicole-Crazy Mommy in AZ!

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-26-2006
Wed, 12-27-2006 - 7:29pm

Nicole,

I stay home as well!! It is the hardest job, especially when you are as tired and exhausted as us.
Glad your daughter will be home soon. I hate when I am away from my babies.. When I had my RAI, I couldn't be around them for 3 days but it seemed like forever.. Does thyroid problems run in your family? Not mine, but I guess it has to start somewhere..

Dyan :)

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-26-2006
Wed, 12-27-2006 - 8:12pm

Dyan,

Yes our job is the hardest job! There are some mornings I have to literally drag myself out of bed. I have gotten so far behind on my housework, that I can't get caught up. It seems like I work my way around the house and I need to start all over again and I just don't have the energy, Tyler doesn't help that either! Having small children makes it hard to get anything done!

I was in the hospital overnight and had to be away from my babies and that was hard. They came to the hospital for about 10 minutes. The day of surgery I had to be at the hospital at 5am and I didn't get released until after 2pm the next day. It was killing me to be away from home!

Thyroid probs do run in the family. My Mom's sister (who's second child was her son) has Hyperthyroidism (which is the kind I had) and my Mom's Mom (had 7 children, 1st son, 2nd and 3rd daughters, 4th and 5th sons, 6th daughter and 7th son.)had hypothyroidism. I am not sure when my grandmother found out she had it, but my Aunt found out right after she had her son. It skipped my Mom somehow, but moved onto me. My Aunt has been on medication for over 25 years and is fine, still has her whole thyroid and my Grandmother was on medication, she died from leukemia in her early 50's.

Nicole

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-30-2006
Sat, 12-30-2006 - 12:57pm

You have been so helpful in easing my stress about my upcoming total thyroidectomy that is coming up in a few months.

I have a few questions that really concern me and that worries me more than the surgery itself.

First, can you tell me about your incision and if it is noticeable. I am very active with my job and socially and worry about the first thing that everyone will see if the big huge slit on my neck.

Second, can you tell me how the medication after surgery has affected your diet and your weight. The reason I am asking is becuase I have a very high metabolism and have always been very thin and do not want to balloon out to a cow.

It is great to have these types of message boards to talk to actual people that have experienced the same events.

Thanks and looking forward to hearing from you!

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-26-2006
Sat, 12-30-2006 - 2:34pm

Hello, I am glad that I have been able to ease some of your worries.

For now the scar is somewhat noticeable because it is still red. I am selfconcious about it, but it is getting better. I have a friend who had the surgery 7 years ago and the scar is awesome! You can barely see it and I think I see it because I am looking for it now! My surgeon glued it and put steristrips on to hold it shut so there aren't the stitch marks also.

I have gained some weight, but I think it is mostly due to lack of energy. You don't have a whole lot of energy at first (or for a while) and it is hard to drag yourself out of bed some mornings from being tired. I don't know if I am gaining weight because of the surgery or just from lack of exercise. I don't know if that is one of the side affects.

Good Luck with you surgery! I am also glad that I found this group! It has done wonders for me!

Nicole-Crazy Mama in AZ

Pages