This post may contain affiliate links for which I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. For more info, check out my Disclosure Policy. Thank you for your support!
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].
Your scar looks longer then average; how was your voice after the surgery?
Hi, I am 5 days post op after having a multi nodule hemi thyroidectomy, I have 16 staples in my lower neck area and currently am finding It quite painful to keep my head up right as the tension at the back of my shoulders is awful, I have them removed on the 7th day so hopefully this will improve, my pain relief is now getting less, so things must be improving. I wonder why I had staples instead of sutures???? I return in 2wks for my results, they are annalyzing a frozen section of the gland checking for cancer cells, as this all began by feeling a painless sensation in my throat, having an ultra sound scan then FNA test, the 1st one being inconclusive, the 2nd one shown what was described as suspisious, and the words papillary cancer was told to me, along with a book ‘understanding thyroid cancer’, as you can imagine my world fell apart, I was so scared, I am a 54yr old female, quite healthy and have a wonderful family, the Mum to 2 grown up daughters, 3 grandsons under the age of 5yrs, and a marriage of 36yrs to a wonderful man, so hearing this was just awful. So they decided to operate, which I waited for about 5wks, they said that once the left side was removed they would send gland to the labs whilst I was still asleep, they would check It out and continue with a total thyroidectomy if It proved to contain bad cells. When I woke they had only taken the left side out, I thought GREAT, but the surgeon said it was inconclusive and It would be checked out more thourghly, I get the results in 2wks, so again I am worried sick, If It comes back bad then more surgery will follow, If good results then I can get on the road to a complete recovery and look forward to a healthy life.
This is my 2nd thyroid operation, had 1st one in 1981 whilst 4mths pregnant, at the time I had been underactive, then over active, having experinced a goitre, the reason behind the op was for the health of my unborn baby, which I might say she turned out to be just fine. I really thought after having that op way back then that i would never have to have surgery again, but life is not always straight forward, never mind fingers crossed this will be a good outcome and all will be well. To everyone out there who is awaiting surgery, you will be ok. Todays surgery and care is a lot better.
Hi Juliet, thankyou for sharing your experience on here, it is nice to see everyone leaving their own stories. Have you tried a hot water bottle on the back of your neck? I had awful stiffness for weeks but think it was partly because I was too scared my head would fall off if I turned it too much!!
I think they try and put staples in because it minimizes the scarring, that is what they told me anyway……
It sounds like you have had quite an experience, I’m sorry to hear it has been a bit of a rocky ride. It’s great that you still sound positive though, and I have found your story quite inspiring. I hope that you start to feel better soon and thankyou for sharing this.
Sarah x
Glad you are feeling ok Sarah. My Dad had this op in the early 1960s when I was quite small and his scar didn’t look as neat as yours, although I think after all these years it has faded now. He did end up 10 or so years later with the opposite trouble (I can never remember whether it is over or under active) when he had to drink radio-active iodine which did the trick, but now another 25 – 30 years on he is on thyroxine, so he has had trouble with his thyroid for most of his life.
Are you ok to drive so soon after an operation – I thought insurers didn’t recommend it for several weeks?
All best wishes,
Sue
Voice after surgery was fine! Talking seemed like a lot of effort at first but so did everything else – was a bit quieter than usual but nothing wrong with it. One of my main symptoms of hyperthyroidism was that I talked super-fas, so was a bit of a shock at how slowly I was talking after the op!
Scar does seem to be very neat and yes, it is a little longer and lower down than expected! Think this is due to the size my thyroid was as it was very over-active.
Sue – thanks for the tip about driving, I hadn’t thought of this! It had been 3 weeks since my surgery and am feeling fine but I will ring my insurers tomorrow to double check just incase!