# TT on Dec. 3 Let me start this again!!



## jackpot13 (Jul 10, 2011)

Man what on ordeal and i'm still not done! Ok so I feel like I should just start over. I had a TT on Dec 3. Tues. Everything went pretty well. My surgeon asked me which side bothered me the most because he would start with that side but if there was any nerve damage to the laryngeal nerve he would have to do the other side at a later time. Fortunately I picked the left side which had the large nodule. Good

nerve response on that side so he went to the right side. That was a different story. The thyroid had glued itself to my nerve. The nerve did respond but it took a higher zap to get a response. He said it was a little rough around the edges and will take a couple months to totally recover but it will. Pain wasn't to bad. I think the swallowing hurt more than my neck. Clear liquids all day! Starving! The next day no one left any orders to advance my diet so I couldn't even start trying to eat solid food until noon! Had eggs and toast. Hospital food. Yuck! At least it was something solid in my stomach. Had a large bandage with a penrose drain under it. The drainage would absorb into the gauze and get heavier and heavier. Drove me nuts! I just wanted to go home. Can't sleep here! Discharge around 6 pm. Wed. and drain removed. AHHHH. Went home and straight to bed. Woke up a few hours later and had some soup. Back to bed. Thurs. Stayed in bed most of the day. Feel very worn out. Not much of an appetite. Throat sore. Lots of coughing but need to do that to get the gunk out of my lungs. Uneventful day. Just trying to rest. Fri. feeling somewhat better. Throat much better but now my neck muscles really hurt using heat on back of neck and ice on the front lol. Started to notice some tingling in my hands and arms and around my mouth. Comes and goes. Sat. woke up feeling real bad. tingling in hands, arms, legs ,feet and my whole head! Called Dr. went to Er. Ionized Calcium was 3.6. Low end is 4.5. Admitted with low calcium. Had 4 GM calcium IV over 4 hours. So now it's evening and no one ever came to redraw my blood! Level re checked in am but no one said a word about it until around 2pm when the nurse came in and said it only went up to 3.9 and needs to be at lest 4.5. Apparently I had 2 doctors and each thought the other one was handling my case. I don't know why my PCP would be involved anyway. I called my surgeon like I was told to and he sent me to the ER so he should be the one handling everything. Anyway now I had to get get 2 GM calcium over 2 hours then wait 2 hours then 2 GM again then wait 1 hour the recheck level. Level got checked around 11 pm. Wouldn't you know I was 4.4!! Had to have another round. Lab checked my around 4 am and it was 4.7! Discharged at 10am Mon. with orders for Caltrate 600 plus D 2 tabs 4 times a day and call endo to make sure this dose is ok. Called endo when I got home and gave all the info but no one ever called me back! Not only am I concerned about my calcium level I am now 6 days with no thyroid and no replacement meds started yet. Ok so now it's Tues. called endo went round and round with them. Said I need to make an appointment so im thinking im gonna go sooner than the 16th. but no that is the date they gave me to come in! I said I already have an appointment on that day and I need answers now! They ordered a TSH FT3 and FT4 and serum calcium. Went to get labs drawn and followup apt with ENT surgeon. Pathology says no cancer so that's awesome!! also no mention of any parathyroids so I still have all 4!! Ya on that to. They must be really mad right now to cause such a low calcium. Must of worn myself out suddenly very tired can't keep eyes open but can't sleep. Heart beating kind of fast and hard. really feeling bad so I went to bed. Wed. woke up feeling pretty good. Waited til after lunch to start calling ENDO about labs. Finally got through but they don't have them. says can take 3 days. I said I work in long term care and we get labs drawn at 4 am and we have them by noon! She said they cant help when they send them which I understand but I am now 8 days with no thyroid and still don't know if I am taking the right amount of calcium. She had me call the hosp lab to see if they were ready and to send them along but the lab said yes they are ready but another labs medical records will send them ! This is crazy!! Well all I can do is wait and hope I don't crash in the meantime or get another low calcium! So that's my story up to this point. I guess I could say the surgery wasn't so bad it's the aftermath!!!! Trying to get people to listen to you like always! would I do it again? Yep I would! I can already feel some differences. Hopefully I am on an uphill now. Thanks so much for all the help and encouragement from all of you. I don't think I could of done this without you. It sucks that so many people have to go through tis but it sure is ice to know your not alone and other people are willing to do what they can to help. I will keep you all posted!! Blessings!!


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## jenny v (May 6, 2012)

Someone here on the boards (maybe Ginav or SuzieSocialWorker) also recently had very low calcium levels after her surgery, too. Her parathyroids went on strike for a while after surgery and it took a while for them to wake back up and start working again. Hopefully, she'll be along in this thread to give you some advice. I lost a parathyroid during surgery (little bugger hid itself under the right side of my thyroid, which was a big ole mess and hard to remove, according to my surgeon) but luckily my calcium levels have stayed normal.

But it sounds like you really need to start replacement soon, esp. since you didn't have cancer. Hopefully, your endo's office gets it together before 12/16 and your labs come in today.


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## joplin1975 (Jul 21, 2011)

I was sans meds for a total of three or four weeks after surgery. It's not fun, no doubt, but you'l make it. Hopefully the parathyroids will wake up and work!

I never understand why some surgeons want someone else to cover post-op meds. If you ask me, the person who took it out better be the person who, minimally, works with you to make sure your meds are covered. I hope things come in soon and you can get started!


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## Andros (Aug 26, 2009)

jackpot13 said:


> Man what on ordeal and i'm still not done! Ok so I feel like I should just start over. I had a TT on Dec 3. Tues. Everything went pretty well. My surgeon asked me which side bothered me the most because he would start with that side but if there was any nerve damage to the laryngeal nerve he would have to do the other side at a later time. Fortunately I picked the left side which had the large nodule. Good
> 
> nerve response on that side so he went to the right side. That was a different story. The thyroid had glued itself to my nerve. The nerve did respond but it took a higher zap to get a response. He said it was a little rough around the edges and will take a couple months to totally recover but it will. Pain wasn't to bad. I think the swallowing hurt more than my neck. Clear liquids all day! Starving! The next day no one left any orders to advance my diet so I couldn't even start trying to eat solid food until noon! Had eggs and toast. Hospital food. Yuck! At least it was something solid in my stomach. Had a large bandage with a penrose drain under it. The drainage would absorb into the gauze and get heavier and heavier. Drove me nuts! I just wanted to go home. Can't sleep here! Discharge around 6 pm. Wed. and drain removed. AHHHH. Went home and straight to bed. Woke up a few hours later and had some soup. Back to bed. Thurs. Stayed in bed most of the day. Feel very worn out. Not much of an appetite. Throat sore. Lots of coughing but need to do that to get the gunk out of my lungs. Uneventful day. Just trying to rest. Fri. feeling somewhat better. Throat much better but now my neck muscles really hurt using heat on back of neck and ice on the front lol. Started to notice some tingling in my hands and arms and around my mouth. Comes and goes. Sat. woke up feeling real bad. tingling in hands, arms, legs ,feet and my whole head! Called Dr. went to Er. Ionized Calcium was 3.6. Low end is 4.5. Admitted with low calcium. Had 4 GM calcium IV over 4 hours. So now it's evening and no one ever came to redraw my blood! Level re checked in am but no one said a word about it until around 2pm when the nurse came in and said it only went up to 3.9 and needs to be at lest 4.5. Apparently I had 2 doctors and each thought the other one was handling my case. I don't know why my PCP would be involved anyway. I called my surgeon like I was told to and he sent me to the ER so he should be the one handling everything. Anyway now I had to get get 2 GM calcium over 2 hours then wait 2 hours then 2 GM again then wait 1 hour the recheck level. Level got checked around 11 pm. Wouldn't you know I was 4.4!! Had to have another round. Lab checked my around 4 am and it was 4.7! Discharged at 10am Mon. with orders for Caltrate 600 plus D 2 tabs 4 times a day and call endo to make sure this dose is ok. Called endo when I got home and gave all the info but no one ever called me back! Not only am I concerned about my calcium level I am now 6 days with no thyroid and no replacement meds started yet. Ok so now it's Tues. called endo went round and round with them. Said I need to make an appointment so im thinking im gonna go sooner than the 16th. but no that is the date they gave me to come in! I said I already have an appointment on that day and I need answers now! They ordered a TSH FT3 and FT4 and serum calcium. Went to get labs drawn and followup apt with ENT surgeon. Pathology says no cancer so that's awesome!! also no mention of any parathyroids so I still have all 4!! Ya on that to. They must be really mad right now to cause such a low calcium. Must of worn myself out suddenly very tired can't keep eyes open but can't sleep. Heart beating kind of fast and hard. really feeling bad so I went to bed. Wed. woke up feeling pretty good. Waited til after lunch to start calling ENDO about labs. Finally got through but they don't have them. says can take 3 days. I said I work in long term care and we get labs drawn at 4 am and we have them by noon! She said they cant help when they send them which I understand but I am now 8 days with no thyroid and still don't know if I am taking the right amount of calcium. She had me call the hosp lab to see if they were ready and to send them along but the lab said yes they are ready but another labs medical records will send them ! This is crazy!! Well all I can do is wait and hope I don't crash in the meantime or get another low calcium! So that's my story up to this point. I guess I could say the surgery wasn't so bad it's the aftermath!!!! Trying to get people to listen to you like always! would I do it again? Yep I would! I can already feel some differences. Hopefully I am on an uphill now. Thanks so much for all the help and encouragement from all of you. I don't think I could of done this without you. It sucks that so many people have to go through tis but it sure is ice to know your not alone and other people are willing to do what they can to help. I will keep you all posted!! Blessings!!


What a story!!! Please let us know when you get started on thryoxine replacement. And we are all sooooooooooooooo glad to know that you are cancer free! What a blessing that is!


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## SuzieSocialWorker (Jul 9, 2013)

Yep I feel your pain, although I never left the hospital until I started absorbing the calcium 6 days post-op. I had amazing doctors and my surgeon and two endo's all collaborated on my case. But since discharge, I have had to do a little "beating down the door" myself. But I will say, the hospital system I used is a well oiled machine and I've been able to get stat labs when I wanted/needed them and just called repeatedly until the MA would prompt the Dr to review them and call me back. Now I have a standing order in case I feel hypocalcemic. I was on a similar dose of calcium, now just a little lower and will probably get labs this week or next. My parathyroids took 3 weeks to wake up. I was also having a fast heartbeat but so tired, and I think it was that my body had been through so much and I was so anxious my calcium would drop in my sleep and I wouldn't be able to get help. It's a process but hang in there!


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## jackpot13 (Jul 10, 2011)

Suzie, wow 6 days in hospital! That would of made me crazy! I can't believe it took so long for your parathyroids to wake up! I am glad you mentioned the fast heartbeat. Mine was in the 90s for about 24 hrs after surg and I am usually around 60. Since being home I had an evening where I felt like I could hardly keep my eyes open but my heartbeat was really fast. Made me nervous. So what causes that? This sure isn't like when I had my hysterectomy. You don't really need that thing when your done with it so when it's out that's all she wrote!! Nothing else to worry about like with the thyroid. Oh well this to shall pass! Thanks for your post and hang in there! :hugs:


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## jackpot13 (Jul 10, 2011)

So it's been 11 days since my TT and still not talking any replacement meds! I am getting more and more tired every day! I need a nap about every 4 hours! lol Is this normal? I have an appointment with my ENDO on Mon. and should start something then . I had my TSH Free T4 and Free T3 and Calcium checked on Tues. I called the office every day to see if they got them yet in the hopes of getting started on something. They just kept telling me no and to keep taking my calcium. What a croc! I work in the medical field and the labs are drawn around 4 am and we have the results around lunch time the same day! I don't kow what the problem over there is! I bet they wouldn't want to wait for my payment!! Well ok enough venting. So I have a question. Once I start on the meds how long before I start to feel a difference especially in the fatigue? I go back to work Dec 24th and I am on my feet walking all over the place most of the shift. I will have been on meds about a week by then. I do realize we are all different but maybe a general idea. I am hoping I can get through my shift without too much trouble. Thanks for your input! blessings! hugs4


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## Ginav (Jun 7, 2013)

I wasn't Able to start meds until about 7 days post-op because I couldn't keep anything down my stomach (anesthesia ). So it has been about 5 weeks for me taking Armour. I started taking 30mgs and they tested my thyroid levels which had plummeted I forget what they were but ft4 and ft3 were way below range and TSH was around 20 something so my doc increased meds to 45mgs. I have been on that dose for about 2 weeks and he wants me to do blood draw in another two weeks to see where I am and go from there. I could feel a difference with starting and then increasing but it only lasted for a few days but overall I am not as tired as I was but I can feel myself plummet in the afternoon. I break my doses up into 3 doses a day. I had eye changes when I took the full dose I am hoping that I can change that once the meds are really working in my system. I was told it could be because I was hypo and the antibodies were still raging. Time will tell I guess.

I lost two parathyroid during the surgery but only had minor issues with that SusieSocialWorker who already commented had a Serious issue with the calcium. I felt tingling in face and hands but when I called surgeon he told me to double dose and called me back a week later to see how I felt and said to cut back to 1000mgs a day but other than that I had no issues. Best regards! Gina


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