What?
It’s that easy for an endocrinologist to build up a practice?
I had nodules in my thyroid diagnosed a few years ago and a negative biopsy, and my doctor never suggested removal. More recently, I’ve been diagnosed with Graves disease, but I don’t know if it has any relation to the earlier nodules. I have been taking meds to control the overactive thyroid for about the last 18 months, and it is showing signs of returning to normal.
Burning out my thyroid has been mentioned as a fallback treatment but not seriously suggested at this point. As long as the hyperthyroid treatment pills are not having negative side effects on my liver, it seems like I can continue them indefinitely.
Supposedly because he’d become the town hero and lauded and wined and dined and get a ticker tape parade and stuff.
How much does the pill cost?
My wife recently (July) had her thyroid removed due to a very early cancer. She’ll have to take Synthroid for the rest of her life. At the moment she’s on a higher dose in order to keep her in a state of hyperthyroidism, which prevents another hormone from promoting thyroid activity which could result in the return of the cancer. Likely, she’ll be in that situation for many years; it tends to make her more jumpy and anxious, and she feels hot a lot.
She gets tired easily, and may have to end her chorus singing.
IANAD, but what they’re probably doing is trying to keep her pituitary gland from producing Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH - the docs’ favorite thing to test for) which in turn stimulates the thyroid (and cancer cellls?) to produce thyroid hormone.
I was kept hyper for just over 2 years. I was always the hottest one in the room (temperature wise, of course) until my doctor started weaning my dose down. I still stay on the warm side most of the time, but I don’t burn up like I used to. FWIW, I was always super cold before I had my thyroid removed. I routinely wore sweaters in July. In Texas.
I have no health insurance so I can’t speak for what insurance will pay, but I get a three month supply of synthroid for $10. If I bought it on a monthly basis, which is what you have to do while your dosage is being adjusted, it would still only cost $4/mo.
So, yes it’s inexpensive. But it doesn’t do as good a job at keeping you feeling well as your actual thyroid gland does. So I’m in favor of getting a second opinion before opting for surgery.
(FWIW, I still have my thyroid - it just lost most of its effectiveness due to Hashimoto’s thyroiditis and I’ve been on synthroid for 15 years.)
Nobody has posted in here for a while, so who knows if anyone will see this.
Unlike other posters, I will tell you my life has never been the same since having my entire thyroid removed in 2005. I had cancer, a huge goiter on my neck, biopsied and scanned. They took the whole thing out, paralyzed my right vocal cord in the process. It never came back. I had radiation therapy, and another scan five years later where I had to take a lower dose of radioactive iodine to see if the cancer has returned. They tell me it hasn’t. But when it does, and it will within 30 years, it could be anywhere – my lungs, bones, brain – and it’s still regrown cancerous thyroid tissue. Weird, huh.
The weight gain never ends, even when I eat one bean a piece of lettuce, or exercise all day long. My weight especially ballooned when a psychiatrist put me on Lithium, which should NEVER be taken by those without thyroids. It causes hypothyroidism in people with normally functioning thyroids. I went into a myxedema coma and nearly died. You can look that up. It’s horrible.
Now I’m on Synthroid and no Lithium, and I lost 40 pounds in one month and my neuropathy (numbness in both hands but not my legs, thank God) is clearing up with a daily dose of Gapabentin.
But even though my thyroid levels are allegedly “normal” and my Synthroid is supposedly “working,” I have never regained the energy pre-thyroidectomy. My brain is muddled and forgetful. I yawn all the time and have to take frequent naps. My legs often feel as if they are made of lead.
I suppose all these people who say “one pill and life is back to normal” have not had their entire thyroid removed. So maybe they still have threads of metabolism. My metabolism is shot, and it’s not coming back. The dirty little secret endocrinologists won’t tell you.
Would I do it again? I guess I’d have no choice. It was a big ball of cancer on my neck.
The funny thing is, my hair had been falling out for 10 years prior to this, my skin dry and scaly, nails brittle, and I got my thyroid tested several times and was told it was normal.
Then, after my cancer diagnosis, they told me thyroid cancer is slow-growing and I’d probably had it for 10 years and that’s why the hair loss, etc.
Make up your minds, medical science! In my experience, few doctors know anything about this, and they’re never willing to tell you the worst.
I don’t want to scare anyone, and if you think you’ve come out of this the same, then I’m so happy for you and so glad you didn’t end up like me. If you did end up like me, just know you’re not alone. Especially if you get psychiatric diagnoses post-thyroidectomy. They’re also part of the fun package.
Life without a thyroid, for me, has never been the same. Guess that’s all I wanted to add.
:nodding: It’s amazing how dependent your body is on that little butterfly-shaped gland, isn’t it? Regulating the metabolism is its biggest job, but it also affects hormones, especially if you’re female: I went through an earlier-than-what-was-expected menopause when I had my thyroidectomy.
If I miss a dose of levothyroxine, I literally drag myself through the day. I won’t have any appetite whatsoever, and I’ll just be content to sit until I start sprouting moss. I’ll also swaddle myself in multiple shirts/sweatshirts/hoodies because I’ll register the slightest stir of air as being subzero. It sucks, especially since I’ve always been one of those balls-to-the-walls types who has to be doing several things simultaneously. When my levels are off I don’t give a crap about anything except sleep.
As for psych diagnoses, I was hyperthyroid for a number of years before I went the other way (Hashimoto’s tends to do that, btw). At one point my hyperthyroid levels were so much off the chart that my therapist at the time labeled me bipolar. After I had the thyroidectomy everything leveled out. No hyper behavior whatsoever. I get exhausted now just thinking how insufferable I must have been during that period :eek:
Hi, I came across your blog in a search of how to loose the post thyroid surgery weight. You sound like me, where your thyroid was not bothering you at all. I had a hug cyst on my thyroid (it was actually sticking out of my neck!) but I didn’t even know it was there until the doc pointed it out on a routine physical. My thyroid functions were normal, but the needle biopsy was abnormal. All said and done my thyroid was out 2 1/2 months after they found the cyst, which turned out to be non cancerous. Life without thyroid is ok, I’m tired, but I always was. I have an ugly scar on my neck, and a little weight gain that I haven’t been able to shake, but it’s only been 8 months. I get dizzy now, and car sick, and have some vertigo some days that I never had before. Over all, if it’s functioning fine, I think I would leave your thyroid alone until it bothers you, if it ever does. People are saying now that thyroid cancer doesn’t really spread usually, if you have it, so you may be able to leave your thyroid alone forever. If you are uncomfortable with the thought of thyroid cancer (like I was) then you might want it removed so you don’t ever have to worry. Just know there will be the side effects that people mentioned, but you can get better over time. Good luck!
People are often given the option to remove or closely monitor. The second opinion is a good idea.
I’d like to comment on the psychiatric issues. They are often connected to thyroid problems. Sometimes that’s the first indication that something is amiss. I’m not convinced that if one’s thyroid hormone is checked and found to be in the normal range that it was the removal of the gland itself that caused the difference.
For me it was sudden bursts of rage. My boss told me once I was the most even-tempered of her workers. And then prior to diagnosis I was throwing things and yelling. Yikes. A co-worker said, “It’s good to see you lose your temper. I thought you weren’t human.” I was so embarrassed.
Although there was a degree of post-surgery trauma for me that was similar to PTSD. And that took a while to get over. After all, I had just had my throat cut and my body doesn’t know the difference between a surgeon and Jack The Ripper, I guess.
There was also a period of time where my calcium balance was awry because they also removed the parathyroids. So - muscle cramps and discomfort. Once that resolved it has remained stable and my bone scans are sufficiently healthy.
My thyroid tumor, a cold adenoma, had grown too large to remain and so I had it removed. I’m not far from the Mayo Clinic and had a doctor who was introduced to me as one of the leading experts on thyroid disease so I felt as though I was getting good treatment.
I have my blood test for it annually and have never had a deviation in thirty-eight years. Still take the same amount of Levothyroxine as I have for years. But, yeah, I’ve slowed down some in three decades. Maybe I could get a boost?
Good luck in whatever you choose, OP.