6 weeks post op picture

1 month post op

I've been behind in posting on my blog due to not feeling well but good news I feel great the past few days. Last week I had a headache that turned into a migraine everyday, it went on for a week. Finally on Wednesday I went to my doctor and they gave me a pain med shot plus a migrane pill. It seemed to brake this awful cylce of headaches. On Friday I went to get accupuncture (which I loved and made me feel great) that doctor seemed to think that due to being on 1000mg of calcium and not taking magnesium could be the reason for my headaches so she suggested CALM which I bought at whole foods it helps even out your calcium and magnesium--definetly works! Since Friday I feel great no headache or pressure in my head. I have noticed more hairloss than normal which could be from the surgery or starting the synthroid so I'm  not going to worry about that for right now but if it gets worse, my accupuncture doctor has something natural that she says has worked for her thyroid patients. Okay what else....for the most part feeling pretty good today I felt my heart was beating a little fast so I took my bp at cvs and it was high...so I am going to buy a bp machine tomorrow to keep an eye on it and if it continues I'll let my endo know. I get my first labs in 3 weeks I'm a little anxious to see how they turn out. My neck looks amazing and feels great...I don't have any pain although by the end of a work day which is about 9 hours it's stiff and I'm tired but that is to be expected. I have not lost any weight but feel thinner I think the puffyness is going down...and I don't feel nearly as hungry as I did before surgery when I could eat everything in sight:) I have to say...I still 100% feel that surgery was the best thing I ever did.

3 weeks post

Symptoms Update

Graves Symptoms I experianced: light menstrol cycle, hair thinning & loss, acne (from anti-thyroid meds), anxiety, memory loss, weight fluctuations, excessive food cravings, skin redness, swelling (from anti-thyroid meds), irritable, eye sizes vary, watery eyes, lack of motivation, lack of concentration.

Symptoms that have gone away since surgery: trouble falling asleep, trouble staying asleep, restless legs, hand tremors, heart palpitations, restless.

5 days post op and my first post since

Overall, so far everything has been better than expected. Yesterday was my first day that I felt good and I feel better today so each day is improving. Surgery went well. I checked into the hospital last Thursday around 7:30 am surgery was at 10am. I was in my room about 1pm...at least I think the times may be a little off. For dinner I had ensure, pudding, & broth. They brought me calcium every few hours but crushed them up and put in apple sauce since I wouldn't be able to swollow a calcium pill. They also took my blood a few times throughout the night to check calcium levels. I did not sleep at all while in the hospital the pain med made me tired but I would fall asleep for 5-10 minutes and then be wide awake again. I was released around noon on Friday. My directions are 1000 mg of calcium a day, 1/2 a pill of my beta blocker, stool sofner (much needed), pain med as needed and/or ib profin, drink lots of water and oj. I see my endo on Friday and also have my post op Friday so I guess that's when I will be starting synthroid currently I am not on anything which I thought was a little odd but double checked with my endo and she said I will be fine until I see her Friday. From the time of surgery up until Sunday night I constantly had ice on my neck and had it elevated. I experianced some twitches for the first 2 days that would wake me up right out of my sleep. I had a horrible headache for 4 days not sure why and nothing helped it. When I get up from the couch to go to the bathroom I get noutous and dizzy for a few minutes but even that is better now. When  I walk I am looking at the ground still....I know I need to stretch my neck but it hurts and scares me and I am still having trouble moving it from side to side. I am very happy with my incision, I actually think it is very small and it looks like it is healing well. I am still eating soft food because chewing a lot bothers me and I found out yesterday that yawning hurts really really bad.

4 days post op 2

4 days post op picture

New Labs

TBII- 45.4 (<=16.0%)
TSI- Positive  A (Negative  %)

9 days until Surgery

9 days until surgery....of course I still question myself...am I making the right decision, will my syptoms get better, will I have the scary side effects that I have read about. At this point after 3 years of this roller coaster ride I do believe I have made the right decision and just have to hope for the best. It all started October 2007, my job that I had started in March 2007 was the most stressful I have ever had in my life. I went to the doctor for a physical after a month of thinking something is wrong with my heart. I was getting palpitations everyday and was only sleeping maybe an hour or two at best each night. I was diagnosed with Graves Disease after blood work and the physical. I have no idea what my blood levels were at the time however I started on 15mg of methimzole and propranol to ease the symptoms. Within a few months I was so extremely tired, my endo would not call me back so I found a new endo and of course my meds needed to be ajusted. I continued on 5 mg of methimzole for a long time...gained 25 pounds, then 35, then 45 my skin was bright red like a rash on my arms and neck so my endo switched me to ptu...well the ptu made it worse and the swelling in my hands and feet was horrible. I also found myself being mad and every person that was around me annoyed me (this was not from the med but just a graves symptom). At this point I found the Graves Disease foundation and reached out to an advocate that also lives in Florida. She recommed her doctor which is located in Miami, FL at Jackson Memorial Hospital North. He is truelly amazing my first visit with him was 2 hours...he is hard to get an appointment with as he is the head of the department and a professor but the wait is well worth it. As soon as he saw me he knew I was allergic to the meds.....how on earth have I been on this medicine for almost 2 1/2 years and the other 2 doctors could not tell I was allergic.....that is crazy. For the past 6 months I have been on only atenolol (beta blocker) this has for the most part controlled my syptoms except for the occasional palpitation, anxiety, heart racing, or sleep interuption. I have taken melatonin every night almost since I was diagnosed and it definetly helps a lot. After much research I am against RAI and decided on surgery a while ago but just didn't schedule it now that I feel my syptoms are slowly getting worse.....I finally decided that it is time.