6 months post op

It has been so long since I have written. Only 6 months post op and I feel wonderful. I was really sick for a long time and didn't realize it until now. What a huge difference surgery has made in my life. It is truely the best decision I have ever made... I started a new job in February, which I would have never been able to do prior. I am still sleeping normal without any melatonin; on occasion I wake up in the middle of the night but I don't usually have trouble falling back to sleep. Most of my side effects have gone away. I am however dealing with severe hairloss which is concerning. I started taking B complex vitamins, recently bought biotin shampoo so we will see if it starts to improve. Keeping my fingers crossed. Weight has been consistant since surgery I have lost about 15 pounds and would like to loose another 20 but I'm not complaining as long as I don't gain. Eyes- I noticed in January my left eye lid at the bottom was starting to sag a little (not sure if that is how to explain it) there is more white part showing at the bottom but haven't seen a change since then so I am hopeful. I go back to Basolm Palmer in July which will be about 7 months since last testing. Oh I forgot to mention that I have had a few minor palpitations but very rare so not concerned. Next labs are scheduled for mid May. I am on 100mcg of synthoid.

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