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For those of you who read my earlier post or follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you’ll know that I underwent surgery on my thyroid last month.
One thing I noticed when frantically googling in a pre-op panic was there didn’t seem to be much information on people’s personal experience with having a thryoidectomy.
I don’t know if I was just looking in the wrong places, but for those of you who are facing a similar situation to me, I wanted to provide an insight into my surgery and my personal experience of having a thryoidectomy (thyroid removal).
I’m sorry for those of you who think it’s slightly irrelevant and a deviation from the coeliac theme of this blog but hey, variety is the spice of life!
After suffering years of an over-active thyroid, which can be linked to coeliac disease, I finally had my thyroid removed on 14th December.
Because I had a bit of a goiter (lump) where my thyroid was – a big part of the reason I was having it removed – the incision ended up being relatively low down on my neck – nearer my collar bone.
The transformation has been amazing – I may have a scar (which is healing remarkably well) but for once I feel like my neck is normal and there’s no lump!
I stayed in hospital for four days, had half of my staples removed the day after my op and had the other half removed a few days later along with my drain.
For those of you that are curious (as I was) having staples removed sounds far worse than it actually is – I couldn’t even feel half of them coming out and the relief I felt afterwards made it worth it!
The drain however, was slightly less pleasant and having that removed was probably the worst part of my experience!
Now, three weeks later, my scar has improved a lot – I still have some numbness around that area and it’s still a bit sore but I figure that’s only to be expected after having major surgery!
Bio-Oil has also been my saviour – I would DEFINITELY reccommend this to anyone as it has stopped my scar itching or hurting as much and it is healing up so well already, I can’t believe it.
It took about two weeks for me to be able to drive and move my head properly again. Now I still have a little trouble moving my head enough to reverse and if I’m around a lot of people I can get a bit of an achey neck but I’ve found moving it has helped a lot with feeling better.
So there you have it – it’s not the most comprehensive view on my surgery (I didn’t want to bore/scare you all!) but I am feeling so much better for it and now I only have my coeliacs to think about!
If anyone has any questions or wants to share their experiences of thyroid surgery, comment below or email me on: [email protected].
I’m having surgery on Dec10th 2018 and I’m so happy to see all these comments I have a mass on my right thyroid and the plan is to remove it and send to to pathology while I’m still in surgery and if it comes back cancer they will remove my whole thyroid. They found Nodules on both sides of my thyroid and they biopsy it years ago and it was not cancer and I’m was being Monitor once a year with a ultrasound by my enconoglist and last year my right side Nodule was a lot bigger but he wasn’t that concerned and said if it grows any larger on my next visit he will biopsy, Well just a few days ago I had the ultrasound again and it got so much bigger that he sent me to ENT surgeon the very next day and now my surgery is the 10th, my neck is so big and I’m having trouble breathing and got use to sleeping with the remote under my neck so I can breath. I’m so ready to get this out but so scared too, I have goggled everything about this surgery. Haven’t seen personal experiences until now, The risk of my vocal chords being damaged or even worse having it so badly damaged it will leave you with a Permanent Treahea 😬 has me scared and I sing. My ENT is thinking I’ll just be one night in hospital and said most people don’t have much pain but it looks pretty painful to me. I’ll be sent home with a narcotic pain pill but my ENT said most don’t use it after a week. Can y’all tell me how long you had to take pain meds, I know everyone is different but I don’t want to be in pain and will be embarrassed if I have to ask for refills. I have had lots of surgeries Total colectomy with permanent illeostomy and had my spleen, hysterectomy, tonsillectomy, I have heart trouble and was sent to Houston for possible open heart but I backed out for now, Seziues, blood clots in my lung, fractured my back last year. But this surgery scares me the most. I’m 41yrs old and I can’t back out of this one. My medical history just goes on. I worked in the OR for a few years so I know about risk but I worked at a very small hospital and never seen thyroid surgery. Mainly hysterectomy, C-sections and Gallbladder. Orthopedic cases. If y’all can give me any advice other then what I have read please tell me. Thank y’all for this blog it’s good to see these comments.