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I had my thyroid surgery on May 31st. It lasted about 4-5 hours. The surgery was complicated. The surgeon took out my thyroid and two parathyroids (which produce calcium). I still have two parathyroids left so I may have to supplement calcium for a while until my body adjusts. I have to take thyroid hormones for the rest of my life. Without the hormones, the body’s metabolism shuts down and organ failure can set in. Obviously, this is bad. So I just take a simple pill in the morning and get frequent blood tests. Such will be my life.
The surgery took a while. I started off wearing an Abena M4 but at some point during surgery they took it off and put in a foley. I dont think the abena held up. With constant IV fluids, there was probably some leakage issues and the abena did not last 4-5 hours. The foley was out when I woke up. I just know I woke up from anesthesia without a diaper. I was so out of it though I didn’t care. Due to my autonmic dysfunction, my body doesn’t regulate my blood pressure well. And I didn’t take well to the anesthesia either. It took the doctors an hour to wake me from surgery. They had to use alot of heavy medications. My blood pressure was 179/119. I awoke extremely dizzy and confused and surrounded by doctors. They were all working on me. It took 3 rounds of IV blood pressure meds to bring it down. I had to stay in the hospital for the night. Being in pain post-op, my wife, who is a cardiac nurse, aided in my care, including for my incontinence. I tried not to be embarrassed. The hospital was a naval hospital and admitted they don’t get many patients with neuropathies such as mine. But I made it out ok. I feel lucky. My doctors said they’ll look through my surgery records to see if there is a correlation between my meds given during the operation and my spike in blood pressure, so next time, maybe we can avoid it. My hospital stay was good. The Navy took good care of me.
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