dianaschnuth

Two days before my surgery, I felt the telltale signs of an impending cold: dry eyes, slightly irritated throat, and the occasional sniffle. During my pre-op call two weeks prior, I had received instructions to call my doctor if I felt sick in the days leading up to the surgery — so that’s what I did. The scheduler asked about my symptoms, and then explained that the biggest concern would be from the anesthesiologist — for example, a moderate to severe cough would get me sent home and rescheduled, but if my symptoms didn’t worsen by the day of surgery, I’d be fine.

This was confirmed on the day of surgery, when I kept letting all my care team know that I had the very beginnings of a cold, including the anesthesiologist. His only comment was that the residual dry throat from being intubated would be made worse by my cold symptoms, but it was nothing that would stop things from going forward.

So, now I’m on Day Two post-op, and Day Four of an impending cold, and colds always start out as a sore throat for me, anyway. I had trouble clearing my throat in bed last night, too, so I’m pretty sure I ended up snoring.

I’ve also got a wicked headache at the base of my skull, which is apparently a common thing after general anesthesia. At first, I assumed that the ache was because I’ve been experimenting with different ways to position my head, and maybe that’s still part of it. My pain relief options are limited to Oxycodone or Tylenol, since NSAIDS can increase the likelihood of bleeding. Current status: attempting to balance an ice pack on my neck and a laptop on my knee.

One other thing worth noting is that I woke up hella sore this morning. Abs, lats, core in general. Not sure if I just slept so hardcore that everything got extra stiff, or if I was using my core more yesterday to avoid using my neck muscles, but things seem to have worked themselves out now that I’ve been up and around for a couple of hours.

I suspect that this is going to be one of those recoveries where I just wish it would be over with already. Isn’t that always the case, though?

I slept the sleep of the recently-anesthetized last night, with the help of Oxycodone and a large amount of pillows. Luckily, I’ve been sleeping propped-up for a while now, due to my enlarged thyroid making my snoring worse, so the position wasn’t awkward for sleeping.

What did make things interesting was the painful swallowing. Every time I had to swallow, I’d wake up. Normally, I figure it would be a reflex thing that I’d sleep right through. Not last night. I eventually found a position where I could swallow without much pain, but it still woke me up.

My cat, Baxter, was so confused last night. Usually, at some point during the night, he climbs up on my shoulder and drapes himself over my neck to snuggle with me. Last night, though, he could tell something was wrong, and found a different place to snuggle up after sniffing my neck and licking my hands where the IVs had been.

I’ve been looking forward to having this massive nodule removed for months. Even with the swelling in my neck and the pain as everything heals up from surgery, I can feel a difference. I can tuck my chin without feeling something pressing on the blood vessels in my neck, or impeding my airway. I no longer feel constant pressure on the inside of my left collarbone. I can tell that the back of my tongue has gotten used to being shifted to the side, from lack of room in my neck. Also, I’m not totally positive yet, but I think the numbness in my left arm may have been exacerbated (if not caused) by my thyroid pressing on a nerve that runs under the collarbone.

The discharge instructions I was given seemed very general: Regular texture diet (I call shenanigans after trying to swallow a bite of my son’s cheesy toast this morning), pat the incision area dry after showering and keep the dressing intact until my two-week follow-up with the surgeon, and “activity as tolerated,” which is clarified later on in my 16-page document as “light to normal activity… as you feel you can.”

Since I’m the kind of person/patient who wants to know as much as possible going into a situation, I did some research beforehand on recovery from thyroid surgery. (Yes, I know that Google results are not necessarily valid references in and of themselves, but I use them to find legit references, like the Cleveland Clinic, Penn Medicine, and the University of Maryland Medical Center.) I’m planning to take at least a two-week break from Krav Maga — after that, I will have had a follow-up with my surgeon and can get his take on when I can return. I also intend to do some daily neck movements to keep things from getting stiff, and to ensure I can move my head well enough to drive Connor to his Krav Maga class.

My surgeon did tell me at our initial consult that I most likely will not have to take supplemental thyroid hormones, but that remains to be seen. I may need to take supplemental calcium if the parathyroid glands were damaged, but I never did get to see the surgeon during my recovery to get the details straight from him. He debriefed Aaron while I was in recovery, but that’s always kind of like a game of telephone.

I’m surprisingly optimistic about how having had this procedure will improve my quality of life. As I told the surgeon last month, 2024 is the year of reclaiming my health, and I see this procedure as the first step.