DISCLAIMER: I am NOT a medical or health professional, this is ONLY to share my own experience and should not replace professional medical or health advice.

It’s been a while since I last wrote. I am happy to report that, despite my initial denial, disappointment, and anxiety about having to get a second surgery for a completion thyroidectomy (to take out all of my thyroid), I moved forward with it and had the second surgery completed on August 2, just a little over a month ago!

I went into this second surgery VERY differently from the first. Knowing that I really struggled after the first surgery, I was wiser about preparing mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, not just physically for this next surgery. I really had no idea how much your mindset can DRASTICALLY impact your recovery and healing.

I am so grateful for the support that my family showed me (including extended family) although I will say, it did make me a little sad because I felt like as soon as we received the news that it was in fact thyroid CANCER, everyone treated me so differently.

As far as all of us knew the first surgery was only done to relieve the discomfort from the 4 cm golf ball-sized nodule in my throat. But as soon as we found out it was cancer, it was like all of a sudden people were asking what they could do to help and it kind of made me feel like it didn’t matter unless it was cancer. But maybe I’ll address those feelings in another article of what NOT to say or do for a loved one who is struggling.

I definitely don’t want to sound ungrateful though, because TRULY the kind care packages, text messages to check in, and prayers in my behalf from family members and loved ones made all the difference in my recovery.

I don’t know if it was solely because of this, or also because of my own decision to have a positive mindset (and reading LOTS of positive books!), but I had a much smoother and shorter recovery time from the second surgery. I think I did feel a little bit of the anxiety and panic I felt from after the first surgery, but it wasn’t nearly as bad, especially because I already knew what to expect from the first time. It also helped that the nurse told me I could eat whatever foods I wanted to right away (although I didn’t, just because it was still uncomfortable for me—so, regardless of what they tell you you can do, listen to your body and don’t try to push yourself to do something just because the nurses or doctors told you you can do it) and could just wait for the steri strips to fall off (which, ultimately they didn’t, but I think having this flexibility was good for my mental health—again, I have no idea why, but the act of pulling off the steri strips was terrifying to me).

I did have a good little panic attack while still in the hospital the second time around. Unlike the first surgery, this time I woke up fairly quickly from the anesthesia and immediately started shaking my whole bed to try to get to my phone because my husband wasn’t there waiting for me in my recovery room like he was the first time. I honestly think it was mostly from the delirium of being put under and I was pretty much fine after that.

I was back to cooking and cleaning around the house about 5 days after surgery, which was about the same as the first surgery, but I did feel much stronger this time around. I also didn’t experience any changes in my voice as I did with the first surgery. I’m not sure why that is.

Oh yes, so one thing I was worried about with the second surgery was whether they would use the same incision or have to make a second incision in my neck (which I definitely didn’t want because my neck is very skinny! I already had awful anxiety attacks from the first surgery with fears of my neck just falling off—I know, so morbid, but it was a real, albeit irrational fear for me).

They assured me at my pre-op appointment that they would use the same incision, they would just need to make it slightly wider (which I hated to hear!). I was really happy to see that the incision really didn’t look much wider after the second surgery and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. Because the steri strips didn’t simply fall off, the PA just peeled them off at the post-op appointment 10 days later, which—although I still hated it, was MUCH better than having to peel off the strips myself in the shower!

The one thing I do regret with my second surgery’s recovery is that I caved and took the pain pills they sent me home with (I didn’t take anything after my first surgery because it was more just discomfort, rather than pain)only because I actually experienced more stabbing pain in my neck than I had the first time. But that was a mistake! They let me know to take a stool softener with the pain pills in my little at-home recovery packet, but I was NOT prepared for the CONSTIPATION that came with taking the pain pills and that, to me was NOT worth it. Although, I would not take this advice because my pain was definitely manageable and others’ may not be!

Another thing with the second surgery was that because they were going in there and looking at the lymph nodes to see how much of that they needed to take out in addition to the other half of the thyroid, it apparently shocked my parathyroids (which control the levels of calcium, phosphorus and magnesium in your blood) and caused me to become hypocalcemic. The doctor did tell me to call in if I was experiencing symptoms like tingling in my feet and arms/hands or cramping, but I just took a calcium supplement and figured I was good (although the tingling and cramping didn’t go away). So, when I went to my follow-up with my endocrinologist and told him this he got very worried and told me to like 6x my intake of calcium (oops! I don’t know why I didn’t take that more seriously!).

I also told him I was experiencing headaches/migraines pretty much all day every day (which I had never experienced any time in my life before). As the weeks have gone on, I thought maybe it was due to my Levothyroxine dose not being high enough, (I’ve been taking 88mcg 7 days a week since my second surgery) so I sent a message to my endocrinologist asking if I could increase the dose (I’ve been feeling all the symptoms of being hypothyroid like I was before taking any thyroid hormones, including sensitivity to cold, dry skin, losing hair, physical exhaustion/fatigue). I was told to go get my next labs done so they could assess where my TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) levels were so I didn’t end up taking too much thyroid hormone (which could also be damaging). Well, I just looked at those lab results today, and my TSH results were in big RED type, at 10 mU/L while the normal range for women in my age range is 0.5–4.1 mU/L, so pretty significantly hypo-.

Some other results I found interesting in my lab test was a Chloride level of 109, which a normal range is anywhere from 98 to 106 mEq/L. I found online some causes such as severe dehydration and excessive urination, which could be because I was out working in the garden in almost 100-degree weather the day before, so I’m hoping it was just a one-time thing.

I also saw that in my lab right before my second surgery, my glucose level was low. The reason being, I decided at the beginning of the year to be gluten-free because I was working with a functional medicine practitioner who recommended it in case I had Hashimoto’s—which I found out I didn’t but I felt better without gluten so I just continued a gluten-free diet. After seeing this low glucose level though, I got scared because my mom has Type 2 diabetes and a future of being poked by a needle every day was NOT anywhere near being ok to me after being poked enough times for all my labs and surgeries. So, I decided to SLOWLY reintroduce some carbs and gluten into my diet. I started with sourdough bread because apparently the lactobacilli and yeast used to help the dough rise during fermentation breaks down part of the gluten in the wheat used for the bread. I am finding that reintroducing carbs into my diet is actually helping with my headaches.

I also saw in previous lab results that my RBC (red blood cell count) and anion gap was low, so I’ll be working to address that too.