Life Without A Thyroid

Ladies (and a couple gentleman), I am very happy to report that things went very smoothly with the removal of my thyroid and I am recovering pretty well so far!

I was knocked out by a nurse anesthetist at about 7:20am on Wednesday morning and woke up in the recovery room in fairly good spirits. In fact, when the nurse asked me if I needed anything in recovery, I said "Why yes, I would love a cup of coffee". Lo and behold, a Seattle's Best cup of delicious coffee was placed before me! What? I don't know if that is even allowed 30 minutes post-op but it happened and it was SO GOOD!

Soon after I was brought up to my room and was feeling pretty good, all things considered! I ate some jello and the most delicious popsicle ever a little later in the day. I was able to eat a "regular" dinner and received roast beef, carrots, and rice. Of course I ate the rice and carrots but since I am still eating vegetarian, I decided the roast beef was not for me! I think even if I was eating meat, I probably would not have eaten it, it was a little scary.

Thank GOODNESS, my husband brought me a giant McDs milkshake at about 6pm and that got me through the rest of the night. I love how most of this thyroid post is about food!

Anyway, I was up and able to walk around the unit pretty much all day and evening and felt pretty good. I was given just one percocet right after surgery and opted for ibuprofen the rest of the time. I watched the season finale of American Idol (and thought Janet Jackson was the best part of the TWO HOUR(!) show). I was hoping to pass out early but wasn't able to fall asleep until about 11:30pm and was woken up at 1:15am for ibuprofen then again at 4am for vitals and bloodwork and couldn't get back to sleep until 5:30am (up again for the day at 7am).

The doc finally came to check me out at about 9am and he actually glanced at me sitting up in bed reading a magazine and walked past me to peer into the other bed. He came back, with a confused look on his face. Uh, hi, you just performed surgery on me? He apologized and said I was looking so perky and in good spirits he didn't realize it was me. I am taking that as a compliment! He answered some questions, talked to me about how I might be feeling over the next week and sent me on my way, YAY!

As for how HMB held up while I was gone - he actually slept in his crib from 1am until 4:30am! But wait for it people, last night, when I was home, HE SLEPT IN HIS CRIB FROM 10pm until 6am!!!!! Yes, you read that correctly! I'm hoping it's not a fluke but of course it probably is...Maybe he just knows his mom needs her rest!

Anyway, the worst part of the surgery has been this sore throat. It was pretty rough that first day and has gotten a lot better. It feels like I was lifting weights with my neck with a tight necklace on. And I am definitely more tired than usual, which could be due to the anesthesia. But overall, I think my experience was pretty positive, as far as surgery goes. I will be hyperthyroid for the next week because when they remove the thyroid, the squeeze all the extra hormones out and they go into the bloodstream. But I will start on meds and even all out (hopefully).

I am definitely starting off slowly but was able to take a walk with HMB in the stroller today and hope to be playing LOW IMPACT/NO CONTACT sports next week as well as more walking. I certainly DO NOT want to hurt myself so I am all about taking it slowly (no, really I AM)!

OK, this has been a long and semi-convoluted post that was really just supposed to be about my little surgery story. I am pretty bad at telling a normal story straight through, as you might have noticed! I hope that everything works out for me without my thyroid and I am sure I will have more to share (about the thyroid and HMB, too, I promise). Thanks for reading :)