Wednesday 13 August 2014

My Thyroid Surgery 1 week on

I had the first operation of my life last week, and I had a partial Thryroidectomy. Thought I would do a post on my experience as a whole and my recovery after 1 week and then I plan to do another in a month or so. I am doing this as I found blogs like this extremely helpful to calm my nerves before surgery.

I had to have the surgery due to a 'nodule' found on the right side of my thyroid, I had known it was there for a long time but I dismissed it as I thought it was normal. you can see roughly how big it was in this photo.
I know the photo isn't great but I found myself getting conscious of it so any photos that showed the lump I would ask people to delete them. The thing that bothered me most was the way it moved as I swallowed as this made it look like an Adams' apple.

It was starting to become uncomfortable especially when I was laying down flat it felt as though my throat was closing.

As for my surgery the surgeons have all told me it went very well, I had some discomfort as I came round and felt as though I couldn't breathe or talk but my mum has told me since that apparently the drain that was in my neck had been pressing onto my vocal chords. The anesthetic made me sick and they gave me medication for this through the line in my hand which eased it massively but the worst part for me was they flushing the drain with saline, it felt like poison going into my arm, I don't know if this is a common feeling or not but it wasn't fun.

For anyone having this surgery I would say try and be calm about it for me and I'm guessing most young women having this surgery the scar is a huge factor in the anxiety about the procedure, I know I must have looked at 1000 different images of peoples scars trying to gage what mine would look like. I saw it for the first time yesterday and I am coming to terms with it. The scar isn't big, maybe an inch and a half long and it is very thin, its just the fact that it is in full show, I have gone out to buy scarves and clothes with a higher neck but I am really struggling with what to wear as I cant grab my favourite clothes from my wardrobe as they make me feel to on show and the weather is quite nice so a roll neck isn't an option.

I am going to put a picture of my scar in here as I think it will be helpful for people having this surgery.
This is after 1 week.

I am going to be using bio oil and I have started taking multi-vitamins as I have been told it speeds up the recovery of scar tissue so I would recommend this to people even though I haven't seen the results yet.

As for recovery time I felt like I was able to get up and dressed and eat normally after 24 hours but this will vary from person to person.

I have been extremely lucky and I have had great support from friends and family, I would advise someone be with you for the first couple of days to help wash your hair or move anything heavy for you. One silver lining is I have received some beautiful flowers and cards and presents :)

I wish anyone luck who might be having this surgery and would love to hear from you if you are and if you have any questions.


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