thyroidectomy update: 5.5 weeks later

The scar (my only original concern) looks so much better!

(I still think pictures like this are very weird but I wanted to see lots of them when I was about to do this surgery so I decided to post them anyway)

4 weeks post-op

5 weeks post-op

I thought the scar would bother me. I stocked up on scarves and crew neck shirts only to find that if I can't see it, I forget about it. I really don't notice people staring either so I don't think it's very noticeable. The only product I use is "scaraway" and I use it every morning and night. 

The synthroid seems to be working. The prescription I picked up immediately after surgery was for 25mcg. I took this for 10 days and I felt miserable. I called my endocrinologist and he almost didn't believe me when I told him the dose. It turns out that my surgeon had some poorly placed letters and numbers so my prescription was supposed to read 125mcg NOT 25 and so yeah, I was tired and fairly miserable. 

The weird thing is, I lost weight. I wasn't very hungry and I got nauseous after eating very little. But my appetite came back pretty quickly after I got on my corrected dose. After a few weeks at my current dose of 137, I think I'm going to see about increasing it more at my follow-up visit in a few weeks. 

The truth is, I don't know what normal energy levels are. I don't know what a good metabolism is because I've had Hashimotos most of my life. The only time I have ever lost weight is when I took diet pills which gave me lots of energy and helped me to lose 20 lbs. I stopped taking them when I got pregnant. Pregnancy made me tired too(in addition to lack of coffee!). Then I had a baby and I was tired from that. (insert lots of lazy positions on a couch, half asleep) That's what I have been looking like for the past year- not attractive). 

As far as the surgery recovery goes, the only complaint I have had is with my voice. I never thought the vocal cords being paralyzed would bother me so much. But I never thought I would be in pain when I tried to sing! People, singing in the car is my thing. I do it every morning, it makes me happy before work and I just love it. The best days are when no one else is in the car and I can turn the music up so loud that I can't hear myself and I sound so much better! My voice is pretty low right now, it gets raspy if I get stressed or tired and I cannot sing anything. It hurts so bad and the voice is just not there when I try to go up in tone. I can't project my voice either so no yelling at people and ordering at Starbucks is physically painful.

My voice also surprises me sometimes. I usually make an excited voice when I wake Emmy up or see her for the first time after work but the sound that comes out frightens even me. It's like the louder and higher pitch I go for, the lower and more masculine it sounds. I've been told that eventually my voice will come back but at nearly 6 weeks I'm honestly a little worried. I don't know what to do to help it along, should I drink warm water with lemon or save my voice when possible? Should I try to exercise it more or something, like singers warm up?

I'm still so happy I did it. The other day I was at a friend's house and a girl told me I looked like I had lost 15 pounds in my face. I'm pretty sure she meant that as a compliment. I've also found that lots of people have thyroid problems which is why I decided to add this in to my blog, in case it helps someone else.