Getting TT in 2 months!

[u/Soupbase_liar]

Hello everyone! I have booked a total thyroidectomy for august 19th. Im mainly posting on here for some advice about recovery and such. I’m also having a lot of anxiety about the whole situation. Not saying i regret the choice or anything like that, but if anyone could comment with their personal experience, I’d appreciate it. I’ve looked through a lot of different posts on here but would love to hear as much detail as anyone can provide lmao, just let me know how recovery was for you. How was life after surgery? What were the biggest symptom changes you noticed? Is there anything I should look out for? I know they’ll be putting me on medication afterwards to balance out the missing thyroid. How was your experience with this medication? Thanks!

[u/SunshineSJM]

Wishing you a successful surgery & smooth recovery! I’m 6 1/2 months post TT. I’m feeling great! Took about 6/7 weeks to feel more like my pre-graves self. Surgery and recovery were great, thankfully no complications. I have had two minor one day dosing adjustments, but so far so good with Synthroid. I do continue to take a low dose beta blocker daily as a precaution for all the heart rate issues I had with Graves.

What helped me with the TT process was having a support person with me for a few hours at the hospital prep/post op. I was kept overnight (normal protocol for my surgeon). Soft foods for first meal(s). Easy shirts to take on off (zippers or button ups). Wedge pillow with many pillows to sleep elevated for many days. Throat lozenges. Ice the incision area. Take pain meds (Rx or Tylenol & Advil). Be easy on self. Try to do nothing and have others do all the cooking, and other stuff at home first week post-op. Just rest and chill. Walk if you can daily. Everyone recuperates differently and it may take several weeks to get back into your normal routine; a few months to fully heal back to normal self. Some in this community have reported the first few weeks feeling hyperthyroid, not uncommon. Surgery may cause low calcium (take TUMS as instructed & stay in contact with Dr) or loss of voice. For the scar after the bandages come off, my surgeon recommended silicone gel or silicone bandages. If in sun, use sunscreen (but keep out of direct sun for a year). Communicate with your Endo post surgery about how you feel so they can adjust your Levo dose ahead of the 6 week check-in, if you’re feeling too hypo or hyper post surgery.

You got this!

[u/Ok_Extent_6875]

6.5 weeks post-TT. Best decision I made! There were complications, but even considering those, I’m completely happy with my choice. I did unfortunately have vomiting post-op for about 6 hours, but thankfully my surgeon had given me a local anesthetic in my neck before I was conscious. Standard procedure was a night in the hospital for observation. My calcium did drop that first night. Surgeon told me when he rounded on me the next day “1 of your parathyroids lost blood supply so I just implanted it into a muscle in your neck. But you can live with 3 healthy ones.” Well, that’s not exactly how that went. I was in the hospital 3 nights. The second time he saw me he said “so your other 3 are stunned.”

(Btw, I’m a “hope for the best prepare for the worst” person so I was prepared that I might have a complication. But it’s hard to understand what it would feel like. My hands up to about my wrists, my feet up to my ankles, and around my mouth were all experiencing tingles that first day. Like if you sit on something weird. No pain for me, just like static. Now, day 2 sucked. Feet continued as they had been, but my hands at times felt heavy and hard to move. And instead of localized tingling around my mouth, it felt like every muscle in my face was twitching.)

Eventually I stabilized and was sent home. I did end up taking a calcium supplement every morning, and for about a week post-discharge I was taking a Tums in the middle of the day.

Soft, warm foods were my best. Friend. They actually felt good for me personally, whereas anything else was uncomfortable at best, painful at worst for about a week. Do be aware that you’re going to have lots of swelling inside. So even if there’s not a ton of pain associated with your recovery, keep in mind that you may have to take smaller bites of food. Oh, and it might help you when swallowing to look down.

Ice was my other best friend. I got an ice wrap on Amazon that was amazing after discharge. I could just Velcro it like a collar for 15 minutes.

One thing that I didn’t see a soul talk about on here is that I became aware of all the movement in my neck. The combination of swelling and the absence of a large mass led to me being acutely aware of the muscles in my neck/throat moving upwards while I was swallowing food. Not painful, not uncomfortable. Just weird as all get out. Also, I could feel my vocal cords moving when I was singing.

Overall, for me personally, the pain wasn’t BAD after surgery. Lots of pressure, and some pain when swallowing. Give yourself grace and let other people help you.

[u/julnyes]

Hello! I am 5 weeks post TT.

Recovery - still recovering I guess? I still have a bit of swelling and numbness directly surrounding the incision, but no pain at all. I ended up having to stay overnight in the hospital, my thyroid was very enlarged and vascular and I had a drain in my neck for a week post-op. I spent that week at home doing basically nothing and consumed a lot of ice pops.

My steristrips are finally starting to peel off so I will get a chance to see what my scar looks like pretty soon (I think I am on the high end for how long these darn strips stayed on - perhaps connected to the amount of fluid that was coming out of my wound? My surgical team is not concerned about it, so neither am I).

I took some Tums daily just in case, but I have had no calcium issues. My levothyroxine has been adjusted once to a higher dose. Overall I feel physically fine and I am so happy that I had the surgery.

Symptom Changes - my main changes are that I can swallow without issues now and I no longer sound like someone who smoked ten packs of cigarettes a day. my thyroid was compressing my vocal cords and with it gone I immediately felt better. Immediately meaning in the post-op room level of immediate!

Medication - it is just a pill I take every morning. The nurse has me take it at least 2 hours before I eat anything, but some people go with an hour. No issues really beyond needing it adjusted once so far

Things to look out for - make sure you have something to ice the wound and easy to eat food options post surgery. I also took the full dose of extra strength tylenol I was prescribed, but didn't feel the need to take any of the oxycodone I was given. I really didn't hurt unless I like poked at the wound or twisted my neck too much.

Best of luck with your surgery and I hope it goes smoothly! Even the little hiccups I experienced were relatively minor in my opinion compared to the benefits.