Good Evening All,
I thought I would finally reflect on my TT and open it up to any questions as well. In the weeks leading up to my TT, I had insanely intense headaches. I had never had such a thing at any point before, and was very concerned. Knowing that I was headed for surgery, my GP also prodded me to have an eye exam (no, I haven’t done that yet).
Now for the fun part: My TT was done by what I later found out, was a leading surgeon who specializes in procedures and oncology cases. This was quite comforting for me. My procedure took longer than the 90 minutes they had planned. I was in recovery after 145 minutes under the knife. I suspect ( and will prod my surgeon at my follow up visit) that my thyroid had been very inflated at the time of surgery, and that is why it took so long. I also had two drains in my neck on each end of the incision. As an aside, that was one of the factors that led me the route I took: the fact that is organ/gland could get so swollen, big and make me feel almost like I was choking. Post surgery, I was fortunate to have no issues at all. Anesthesia was smooth and nausea was not a factor at all. I had requested with the anesthesiologist that I was not infused with any concentrated narcotics/opiates or the such. My preference was to go with IV tylenol or anti inflammatory type things. I ended up with IV tylenol every four hours. I was only slightly tachycardia coming out of the anesthesia, which was not surprising to me, since I had suffered from a racing pulse and odd spurts of blood pressure previously.
Part of the reason I chose this route was that I wanted to limit the amounts of inputs in to my body. I understand this route is not for everyone, but with all of the ups and downs my hyperthyroidism had caused me, I wanted to feel a normal sensation again: swallowing normally. I was admitted after surgery and kept over night. At 10 PM that evening, 12 hours after surgery, I began to feel tingling and some numbness in my hands, forearms, and feet. Thinking that it couldn’t be my calcium levels (they had tested normal post op), I took my IV pump for a walk. I told my nurse, and they started my on calcium.
My discharge instructions were the standard, watch for signs of infection and call immediately if you have any issues with swallowing and the such. I still had problems with the tingling (and subsequent numbness), which their proposed solution for was Tums tablets, 500mgx2, 2x daily, and an additional time if tingling persisted. After 2 days, the tingling was persistent, so I heeded my mothers’ advice. This was tough for me to do, but as a fellow TT patient who is dialed in to her Endo’s advice, I listened, and I am glad I did.
In lieu of the of Tums (which are calcium carbonate), I swapped in a store brand Citrate, of the same mg, which is Calcium citrate with a few other vitamins included, which I believe are there for absorption reasons. No, I am not an expert on vitamins at all, but after 3 days of using that calcium supplement, my tingling is just about gone. And yes, I should thank her endo. My fellow post op TT’ers, I hope this information can help you as well.
Otherwise, I am doing well. I still have some off from work, as I was off all last week, and am schedule to be off at least this week. I will meet with my surgeon mid week to review my case and the pathology results of my thyroid. I am both nervous and excited for this visit, as I am hoping there were no abnormal cells in all of the nodules of my thyroid.
I still have some of my hyper thyroid symptoms (hair loss, heat sensitivity, fatigue), but they are not as sever as they were before. I am on my 100 mcg Levothyroxine dose for now, until I see my endo at month’s end, for blood work and review of my medication. Yes, I am tired, but I am also less than 1 week post op, which I suspect is normal.
One thing I am wondering about for the TT group out there: do you take T3, such as Cytomel? And how did such a resolution come about.
Thank you @amosmcd, Kimberly, @Sueandherzoo and the rest of the forum for offering your thoughts, support, and comments.
I truly appreciate you guys:)
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