When I was first diagnosed, I was interested in thyroidectomy, but it took me a really long time (like, a year) before I was ever euthyroid for two or more blood tests in a row. That’s one of the reasons I ended up staying on methimazole for four years. (My TSH never did get into the normal range). I finally got a thyroidectomy last fall due to a large nodule, and by that time I had been euthyroid for a few years.
The only time I’ve heard of someone having a thyroidectomy when she was still hyperthyroid, it was someone who was unable to take either of the ATDs and didn’t have a choice. Her doctors were able to give her something to mitigate the risk, but this is certainly not ideal.
This is purely anecdotal, but I actually had emergency abdominal surgery a year before I was diagnosed with Graves’ but at a time when I had just started exhibiting symptoms (tremors). It took a little longer than expected to heal from that surgery, and six months later I had a follow-up surgery. At the time of the second surgery, I was still having tremors and had lost a lot of weight, but it was still six months before my official Graves’ diagnosis. It took a full year for me to heal from that second surgery. I started going to a special wound clinic at about the same time that I was diagnosed with Graves’. I really believe that Graves’ impeded my body’s ability to grow new tissue.
When I was euthyroid and had my thyroidectomy last fall, I had no issues with healing at all.
