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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].
Hi
so glad your op went well, and it is a very neat scar. I had the op 2 yrs ago, after having very over actice thyroid T4 =72!! so i will be interested to see how you get on now. I havn’t had a diog for Ceoliac, but have a lot of the symtoms and only recently came across the link to Graves disease. unfortunately I havn’t had a lot of support over the thyroid. the thinking seemed to be , your thyroid is sick, take it out, there you go, all better, no thyroid therefore no illness!! for me , not so!I’m so glad I’ve found your blog and am working my way through the archive, so good luck and thank you in advance, for the no gluten advice.
I’m due to have a total thyroidectomy in 3 days time. I can’t help but look up pictures of thyroidectomy scars – i’m so worried about it! I’m also worried about talking, even if it is all fine, the thought of it seems so much effort already!
I’ve got a 14 month old baby, I worry I’ll need 2 full weeks off being a mum if you say you couldn’t really turn your neck. And I thought I would only be in for a night – why were you in for four nights?
I’m freaking out!!!!!!
But thanks for your blog, it’s nice to hear a very calm report of the surgery.
Thankyou so much to everyone for your comments – it has been great to hear surgery went well for others and has made me feel more supported and optimistic through my experience!
Jane – that is an amazingly overactive thyroid!! I think my t4 was 40-50 something so also very high but I thought that was bad! I think it is a bit of an issue to find support when you have a thyroid problem – I have been very lucky with my consultant as he has been very supportive and helpful and I seem to be well on the road to recovery now (with the added bonus of free prescriptions for life, always nice!)
Ashleigh – I am so glad you have commented on this and found this helpful because 3 days before my op I was in EXACTLY the same position as you – terrified with no idea what to expect and manically googling every detail!!
I don’t know why I was in hospital for so long – a combination of things I think but have noticed through my research that diff hospitals/countries etc vary from day surgery to longer stays! Firstly – they removed some of the little lobes (the name has failed me?) which help produce calcium and my calcium levels dropped very low which meant I had to go on a drip and be monitored for a few days. I also had a (and I quote) “very large and oozing” (that makes me cringe every time, yuk!!) thyroid which was still a tiny bit overactive and therefore I had a surgical drain which I think collected more than they thought, etc. So that’s why I think I was in for so long but I can’t speak for every hospital!
Also – I think the reason it took 2 weeks to be able to gain more mobility in my neck was that I had a very large scar and was also scared to take off my dressing which was stopping my movement a lot! I also am a massive wimp and it seems other people recovered quicker than me!
Good luck for your surgery – I’m sure it will be absolutely fine and I hope this has helped!
Sarah