Anybody had their thyroid removed?

[ScottOfTheArseAntics]

I am due to have the right half of my thyroid removed next week. If you have had this op can you tell me how you felt afterwards and how long it took to recover and get good movement in your neck. My surgeon has said two weeks total rest and 6 weeks avoiding lifting and driving.

I found out today that a meeting I should probably attend is taking place in Brussels exactly 4 weeks after my op. My boss wants me to go and I am not sure whether to tell him to take a hike or not. Even though it would only involve getting a cabs to/from the airport sitting on a plane and then in a meeting room I am not sure if I will be up to it.

Would be great to hear from anybody who has had the op.

Hi - I have had all the lymph nodes on one side I my neck removed (lymphoma) and I remember I had about 3 days in bed and about 10 days til the pain went away.
Maybe not as deep as the thyroid though?

My siste had the whole I her thyroid removed but it was with the radioactive juice!

Thanks WMM! I think I am probably being over-anxious about the whole thing, I am sure I will be fine by then. I hope you and your sister are feeling good now.

I've had this operation done twice (So now have no thyroid) I went in hospital in the morning, stayed overnight then got discharged at the lunchtime. But I didn't have a drain in, if you do then you'll be in an extra night. Immediatly afterwards your neck will be quite stiff and sore. You won't be able to wash your hair for 72 hours incase you get the wound wet. I had to sleep propped up for the first week as It was really sore turning over and lying flat. Eating to start with is a bit sore due to swallowing and also since you have a breathing tube in during surgery your throat can feel a bit scaratchy and a bit phlemey as well.

Stitches were removed after 7 days. Neck will look a bit swollen over the incision but does go down a bit. If it's only one side then the remaining lobe takes over hormone production and you shouldn't need Levothyroxine after.

I wasn't allowed to lift for 2 weeks. I don't drive but was told around 4/6 weeks. Due to not having proper neck movement to look behind and due to were the seat belt was lying. I took 4 weeks of work but could have done with more as I was quite tired still and I only work part time.

The second operation was a bigger one as the surgeon reopened the scar and then made it bigger to get the other side out and to check lymph nodes etc. I was of work for 7 weeks then as I due to no thyoid I have to take levothyroxine and it's a bugger to get the dose right !

Hope your operation goes well.

Oh and you get an appointment approx 2 weeks after as the part removed will get sent to pathology as routine so you'll need to get those results. And also your surgeon will need to check the wound is healing.

I personally wouldn't fly after 4 weeks as you might be still signed of anyway depending on how your healing/ feeling.

catpark sorry for not getting back to this thread sooner. If you are reading this then thanks so much for sharing your experience and knowledge. I am guessing that you had to have your whole thyroid removed because they found malignant cells. Is that right? If so then I hope you are all clear now and feeling good - in spite of having to get your meds right.

As well as still being bruised and hurting from the op I am concerned that after only 4 weeks my thyroid function will be out of balance and I will be feeling the symptoms associated with that. I need to be on the ball in the meeting but my Endo has said that I may be hypo for a while after the op as the remaining lobe starts to work again.

I have been struggling with an overactive thyroid for a year now and the emotional highs and lows of that have made it really tough to focus on work. Now I am scared of going hypo and all that entails. DH keeps telling me I will be 'back to normal' after the op. Ha! I really wish I could believe that.

Hi,
Speaking from experience I wouldn't fancy a meeting 4 weeks after a partial removal. I had a partial removal (a mere 90%) of my thyroid and I felt rough for about 2 months, I did have complications though so my experience is not typical. Main problem was the neck pain, I only found relief in positions where my neck was well supported.
Thyroid function can only be measured accurately every 2 weeks, so 4 weeks would be quite fast to establish how much, if any thyroxine you might need afterwards.
Good luck with the op, I was glad I had it done in the end but I needed quite a bit of rest after.

Thanks romola. I guess technically 90% is only partial but WOW! Can I ask why they didn't take 100%?

As for the meeting, I am not going to commit to it at this stage.

Yes I had cancer. I had a lump in one side and after biopsy's , ultrasounds, blood tests they couldn't be sure what it was so was given the option of leaving it for 6mths and retesting or have surgery to remove the one side right away and i'd know for sure. It was only a 8% chance. Had the surgery and it was a tumor, so had to go back and get the rest out which thankfully didn't have any more cancer. Had that done a year ago and radioiodine ablation. In remission now but it was hard going.

I'm still getting the level of thyroxine sorted as it takes around 4 weeks to reach saturation point in your blood. That is why you get tested 6 weeks after a dose change. They do this by upping/lowering by 25mgs each time as it has to be carefully monitered.

Thanks for coming back to this catpark. I am sorry you had to go through the worry of cancer and a second bout of surgery but glad you are in remission.

You said : I had a lump in one side and after biopsy's , ultrasounds, blood tests they couldn't be sure what it was so was given the option of leaving it for 6mths and retesting or have surgery to remove the one side right away and i'd know for sure. It was only a 8% chance.

That's exactly where I am at the moment. Although I also had a radioactive uptake test which showed that my nodule was 'hot' which apparently is a good indication that it could be benign but again we can only be 100% sure after it is removed and tested.

Were you hyperthyroid before your op catpark?

As well as the lump, i had hot flushes and night sweats, couldn't sleep properly and my hair had stopped growing and was falling out. They thought I had an overactive thyroid at first and the lump was possibly a goiter but all my blood tests showed the thyroid hormone levels were normal.

Biopsy was inconclusive but it was quite fluidic which they said was a good sign it was a cyst. Ultrasound showed partial solidity and blood flow to the lump but no blood flow from it (In other words it was being fed but wasn't passing anything out into me)

But i was in that 8%. I was lucky it was still stage 1 due to my age but if I was 10 years older it would have been stage 2 due to it's size.

Remember thyroid cancer is very rare, and If caught early is one of the most treatable ones as they can target just thyroid cells with the radioiodine ablation and not damage anything else.

Hopefully you'll be in that 92% that find it's benign.

Thanks catpark. I'm trying not to worry about it. I know the odds are in my favour. Thanks for your response to my questions, I really appreciate it.

Just to clarify, the reason why they had to take out 90% was due to complications. The original plan was for much less but having opened my neck and seeing the state of the tissue they decided it was safer to remove more. If you have already had tests on thyroid then hopefully the surgeon will be more prepared and informed about what needs to be done.

No problem. Hope all goes well.

Have you had a general anaesthetic before ? If not then ask to get given an anti sickness drug before they wake you up. I was really sick after the first operation, not nice at the best of times but when you've just had your neck cut open it's not good ! I told them for the second operation and they gave me 5 different anti -sickness drugs before waking me and I was fine.

Catpark has an excellent point. Ask for the entire anti-sickness section of the medicine trolley. The staff didn't believe I was going to be sick until I was, not the best way to wake up.

Hi I had a partial thyroidectomy (half of it) to remove a tumour which turned out to be benign.

I ended up with a very bruised chest area and generally feeling very "beaten up" and it took me a good six months to recover from the whole affair. The op was done well and was successful but my body just took a long time to get over it.

Do you know how you react to GAs/operations - have you had one before? I've just had another op and am struggling to recover my strength and stamina again.

I don't remember having too much pain and I was definitely driving after two weeks with good neck mobility, but was rather fatigued. I think that's more to do with my personal recovery time than what the op is like for most people.

I would say you won't really know what you can cope with until after the op, it so individual. Personally I would be kind to myself and not travel abroad unless it was for a 5* luxury holiday.

Hope it all goes really well for you.

Thanks all and especially thanks for mentioning the sickness. I had my gall bladder removed about 4 years ago and was horrendously sick after that GA, they said at the time it was the morphine. I really don't want to go through that again particularly with a neck wound and have been worrying about it. I didn't realise you could get anti-sickness drugs so I am delighted you have all mentioned it.

Make sure you tell the aneasthatist when he/she comes round just before the operation that your were really sick the last time you had a GA. It will get put in your notes, Then you'll get given anti-sickness stuff intravenously just before they bring you round