thyroid

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Total Thyroidectomy

It's been one week since I had my "total thyroidectomy" also known as "skinny neck time"! I was diagnosed with Hashimotos thyroiditis when I was 12 when "the goiter" (what a nasty word) had first appeared. It basically meant I had a slow metabolism and would inevitably have to supplement my thyroid hormone production with synthroid. We put it off because it was managable and once you decide to start medication you can never stop and it is harder to stabilize while your thyroid is still functioning. 

Back in September, I went for a physical and my doctor discovered a lump in my throat. I'm surprised I hadn't noticed it, after an ultrasound and a few tests, they found one large nodule on the left side of my thyroid and several small ones on the right side. The "cancer" word was tossed around but the more likely culprit was the Hashimotos. I met with my endocrinologist and he hooked me up with a really awesome surgeon. The whole process of tests and doctor visits drug out for 3 months and that lump continued to grow. 

It was pretty noticeable, here it is a few days before surgery:

I basically had no collar bone and the lump was actually sticking out a little bit!

I was nervous about the surgery and sad to have a scar on such a visible part of my body. I also knew the worst part of the recovery would be getting the synthroid right. That's why I have a good endocrinologist, you don't want to mess around with the hormones that can make you tired and fat or super hyper and stressed out.

The lump made surgery inevitable so I had my one time allowed meltdown and then pulled on my big girl panties and accepted it.

The surgery was fairly quick, an hour or so and when I woke up I was in A LOT of pain. That was definitely the worst part. I couldn't move my neck, I couldn't talk and they wouldn't let me drink anything because it would be terrible if I threw up.

Here's a picture 24 hours after the surgery 

(the one I took right after surgery included drains and I didn't think that would be such a nice picture to see):

I hope that's not too gross! There wasn't a bandage, it's just a bit of glue with some clear stuff on top. I prefer it because I would hate to have to pull anything off later and if I couldn't see it, I would imagine it to be worse.

The pain started to subside on Thursday and by Friday I was fine taking tylenol instead of the loretab. The thyroid is near "parathyroids" one of which produces calcium. As my surgeon described it, even if they aren't damaged during surgery, they tend to be sensitive and will temporarily shut down after surgery. So with numb finger tips I had to take 3 tums 3x a day. Since I think of Tums as candy, I was happiest about this one.

My voice is back although I cannot sing. I can't talk very loud and I can't make my voice go up like I'm surprised or excited. This is most disappointing for Emmy. She will do something funny and I will say "oh. yay." I can't do any better than that! My voice should be back to normal over the next few weeks. 

And, of course, my main concern about recovery came true: I'm moody. It's not too bad, not like I'm angry and then happy. It's more like I'm happy then I'm knock-down-need-a-nap-now tired. Then I get cold. Like, I'm living in an igloo and my toes might fall off. I wrapped a heated blanket around me on high and it took 30 minutes to warm up. 

I am such a naturally warm person that it makes me feel bad that I was so hard on the cold-natured people in my office. Being hot is annoying but being cold takes over all thoughts and it's immobilizing. 

I'll keep you updated on my progress. I am hoping to get back to the gym next week and back to "normal" by Feb 1st.

It's good to set goals, right!? 

Thursday, February 21, 2013

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.