I had a full thyroidectomy last Friday (8/28) and am now dealing with the after effects.
I was diagnosed with Stage I papillary thyroid cancer, a slow-growing, easy to get rid of version of the disease. My surgery was originally set for 9/22 but the doc I saw for a 2nd opinion said he could get me in sooner so I went with the earlier date. Good thing, too.
The cancer was in a node about 1 cm x 1.3 cm. It was thought to be contained in the node but when the team opened me up, they found that it had spread onto the recurrent laryngeal nerve, aka the nerve that runs your vocal cords. They had to peel the cancer cells off the nerve, which reacted by shutting down my right vocal cord. It’s now paralyzed but could start working again at any time.
Meanwhile, the left vocal cord went on strike. It’s at about 30% mobility right now. The result is that I can make a very slight breathy voice and have to go see a team of voice specialists two hours away from where I live. The good part of all of this is that since the cords are not totally paralyzed, I didn’t need an emergency tracheotomy. I also can eat and drink with no problems. I’m not aspirating any food or liquids, which is a danger when your larynx isn’t working right.
What was supposed to be an overnight hospital visit ended up taking 6 days. Because the parathyroid glands had been disturbed (“pissed off” as my surgeon put it) I had to have my calcium levels monitored closely. That meant blood draws every 6 hours, whether or not I was awake at the time. The parathyroids regulate calcium and if your calcium is out of whack, your heart rate can go all crazy. I’m on supplements for now and hope to be off them eventually.
Of course, no thyroid means I’ll be taking some kind of thyroid pill for the rest of my life but I think I’ll manage. It’s a tiny pill that’s easy to swallow. It looks an awful lot like an Immodium, in fact. Let’s hope I don’t mix them up.