Hi and welcome to the bulletin board,
Since you have been reading some of the prior posts, I hope one thought has been very clear to you as you make your decision.
It is YOUR personal decision. Almost everyone is happy with the treatment they had, if they have been a part of the decision.
YOU are busy! I think there is another poster who has a family with similar aged kids, seems like it mamabear. She’ll probably write when she has a chance.
So here’s my story. You’ll hear from others, with their choices. I chose surgery, and for me, that is what I really did want. One reason is that it seems more definitive, and I could get regulated faster, and get my life back. For me, both RAI and ADT’s carried the possibility of returning to the hellish hyper state. For me, I did not want to take either of the ADT’s long term. Having said that, there are several people on the board, including some of the facilitators, who are very happy with their choice of ADT’s. I wanted to move along as fast as possible. I had a six month old when I had the surgery.
All worked very well for me. The recovery was easy (I think there are some good posts on the post op period that you can probably find if you use the Search mode.) I did not have any hyper feelings after the surgery, then I remained euthyroid for the next 30+ years, neither hyper or hypo. Then my TSH was up toward the hypo range, and I felt tired and sluggish, so I began Synthroid. I felt better in a week, have labs checked now and then. My Synthroid has been changed over the years, but I have felt great, with one exception, when it was reduced too low, because TSH was suppressed. I was sluggish, clearly my labs did not reflect how i felt, so it was increased slightly, so now I feel great.
For the thyroidectomy, I talked to two surgeons who do thyroidectomies on a regular basis, just as I shopped around for a breast cancer surgeon when i had mastectomies. At the recent conference, a speaker who is a thyroid surgeon, said to ask how many he/she does a year. Ten is too few. Near 50 or more is what to look for.
Best wishes to you in making your lists of pros and cons! Keep writing!
Shirley
