Since my surgery on Monday, things have been pretty good. I was released from the hospital shortly after I published the last entry on Tuesday afternoon. My calcium levels looked good and I was given the go around 4pm. I was wheeled out by my awesome PCA, Dennis, followed by my mom and dad and HG in my lap around 5:15 or 5:30pm.
I got home to a beautiful care package.
A woman who has been through this journey a few years ago and is a former student of a professor of mine sent me a lot of really useful and thoughtful things. I've never met her, but have spoken to her on the phone and texted back and forth and she has been a really great support for me. Thank you, Brooke and thank you, Dr. Ellison for putting us in touch! I have been introduced to others who have gone through this as well and I can't thank them enough for the support and peace of mind they have given me! You know who you are...thank you from the bottom of my heart!
Ok...anyway, I was instructed by my ENT to start that evening on Cefprozil (antibiotic) as a precautionary measure even though I had antibiotics through my IV in the hospital, take my Calcitrol, TUMS, and whatever pain meds as needed. I did exactly as I was told, set up my son's bed (since he sleeps in our bed) to accommodate my pillow needs, ate dinner, took my medication and only one pain pill to see if it would help me sleep and went to bed.
Wednesday morning, I woke up nauseous. I ate some oatmeal and yogurt, but I didn't eat much since I wasn't feeling so good. I had no idea what was wrong because I had been feeling pretty good up until that point and had no nausea what so ever. Shortly after breakfast, I ended up throwing up twice. I called the ENT's nurse and left a message. She called me back not long after and told me she would talk with the doctor and call me back. I took my second Cefprozil at 9:30am, I fell asleep for 2.5hrs, woke up and threw up again. I felt terrible and throwing up hurt not only my already sore throat from the breathing tube during surgery, but my incision as well! It all hurt like HELL! I ended up taking 2 Tylenol (instead of the hydrocodone) to help with the pain. I called the ENT nurse again and this time when she called me, she explained that the doctor thought it was actually the antibiotics that were causing my nauseousness and to go ahead and stop taking them. He said that should help and I probably won't have any more incidences of vomiting. As a preventative measure, he called in a Rx for Zofran (anti-nausea). That afternoon, I ate some crackers and drank ginger ale to help with my stomach and ended up keeping that down. I ate rice for dinner and kept that down as well. My stomach felt ok, but I took a Zofran before bed just in case.
The next morning, I woke up feeling great! It was my husband's birthday, so I was hoping that I felt good enough to do something with him in the evening because this was the big 4-0 for him! I had to go get blood work done for my endocrinologist appointment, so I decided that I would attempt to take a shower and finally wash my hair. It was a little tricky, but with an Aqua Guard, lots of tape, and being very careful, I was successful in keeping water off of my incision. It felt good to finally take a shower!
Blood work was not fun. The phlebotomist who drew my blood was terrible. She rushed, poked all the way through my vein, kept moving the needle all around trying to get the blood to come out faster, and then when she took the needle out, she drug it across my arm slightly leaving a scratch, didn't cover it with a gauze right away, and blood dripped out onto my arm. This is the bruise I still have today from that...
I went home, started watching Game of Thrones (I know I'm late...) and got through 3 episodes and took a long 2 hour nap. I woke up feeling pretty refreshed and got dressed and joined my family and a good friend for dinner for my husband at his favorite restaurant. We had a great time, but just sitting there got tiring after 2 hours and I was pretty ready to go home at that point.
That evening, I took 2 Tylenol, but mostly as a precautionary measure just in case I did something funny in the middle of the night with my neck and it had been feeling pretty sore and stiff from not being able to move it much.
Friday morning, I was feeling great. My husband took off work and we spent the day doing stuff. We took our son to the roller rink. I just sat and watched, but it was fun to see them enjoying the roller rink.
After that, my mom had a hair appointment and we all went over there and I sat and chatted. We met with my dad for lunch and then headed home for a nap. I slept for 2 hours and felt really rested after I woke up. Since my son decided he didn't want to nap, he got to go to bed early and my husband, mom, and I stayed up and watched Batman vs. Superman. We stayed up until 2am! Guess that late nap really gave me energy!
I woke up this morning and again, I feel great. I took another shower and washed my hair. This is what I have to go through to ensure my incision site stays dry...
The pain in my throat while swallowing has pretty much subsided and I haven't taken any Tylenol since Thursday. I still can't move my head (doctor's orders) much. The only thing now is I feel like I'm just waiting for when I feel like I've "run out" of hormones. I have a follow up appointment with my ENT on Tuesday morning to remove the SteriStrips and stitches and then an appointment Tuesday afternoon with my endocrinologist to discuss my blood work, my calcium supplement taper schedule and whether or not I have to do the RAI afterall. If I do have to do the RAI treatment, I will probably have to start my 2 week low-iodine diet at that time. If not, he will probably start me on synthroid. We shall see! I'll probably update again after that.
Until the next post...
The day before surgery, I had to stop all food and liquids at midnight. I knew I was going to be very thirsty since my surgery wasn't scheduled until 12:30pm the next day. That's a long time for me to go without food or water. So, I grabbed a huge movie theater cup we have (thanks to my husband who likes to keep these kinds of things) and proceeded to drink 2.5 of these throughout the afternoon and evening before I went to bed.
For dinner, my mom made baked potatoes, salad, and black beans, which filled me up nicely. I took my shower with the antibacterial cleansing soap the hospital gave me to wash with and off to bed I went.
When I woke up, I was thirsty and hungry, but I tried to distract myself from thinking about food or water by packing my hospital bag. I took my second shower with the antibacterial cleansing soap and changed into my loose clothing. My mom, sister, husband and I all took HG to daycare and off to the hospital we went in a 3 car caravan. I was very nervous because I had never been under general anesthesia before, but my mom, dad, and several other friends who have gone under before reassured me everything would be ok.
When we got to the hopsital, we went to the front desk and told them I was here for surgery. They sent me to the second floor where I was immediately escorted with my husband to the AOD area (pre-op prep room). I changed into a gown, they took a urine sample, the anesthesiologist put my IV in my arm, and we waited...for 2 hours. The nurses that were going to help with the surgery came in and introduced themselves and got my saline started. The doctor came in around 12:30pm to say hi and check that everything was squared away with what surgery we were going to do. Then, the anesthesiologist's nurse came and gave me the "margarita". It only made me feel slightly dizzy, but not that good feeling you're supposed to have. I guess I was on such high alert that it didn't affect me much. They wheeled me to the OR and I transferred myself to the operating table and laid my head on the pillow. The anesthesiologist started mentioning the things she was injecting into my IV and then she said, "Now here comes the good stuff." It was this white liquid and within a few seconds I was out. Next thing I know, I'm waking up in the recovery room. The nurse put a washcloth over my eyes and drew some blood (which I don't remember her doing that because I couldn't feel a thing and couldn't see because of the washcloth). After she removed the washcloth, it took me about 5 or 10 minutes and then I was wide awake. It was 4:15pm. She was very surprised at how alert I was given that I had just come out of surgery. I knew they had done something because there was a bandage on my neck and a drain coming out of the side, but I was in no pain, and of course, I didn't remember anything. They called my husband back to see me and the doctor came and talked to me about the surgery. He said it went much better (and quicker) than anticipated and I had minimal bleeding, my nerves were not damaged at all during the surgery, and they didn't have to remove any lymph nodes! He also told my family that once the pathology report comes back, he and the endocrinologist will discuss whether or not radioactive iodine treatment is necessary. Then, he asked me some questions, I asked him some questions, and he said, "You are the most sharp, alert patient I have ever had that just came out of surgery. Most people are super groggy and not with it."
After about 45 minutes in PACU (recovery), they wheeled me to my room. My caravan of family were with me (dad, sis, and husband) except my mom who had the duty of picking up HG from daycare, taking him home to eat, and then bringing him up to the hospital to see me. Once I got settled in my room, my dear friend April came to visit. We had a nice time chit chatting and it was good to see her crazy self.
HG and my mom showed up later and he ate his dinner and got to sit on my lap and watch some of his videos on the phone. Around 8pm, everyone but my mom left. I started to get a tingly feeling in my hands and feet and I knew my calcium levels were getting low. My calcium wasn't due until 9pm, so we waited. I got to walk around a bit which felt nice. Once the anesthesia wore off, I started to have some pain in my throat, like I had strep throat, but it was from the breathing tube that they put in and took out during surgery. It was bearable for a while, but as the evening went on, swallowing became very painful. My incision site didn't hurt much at all (probably about a 1/10). I ended up asking for a pain pill around 10:30pm thinking that would help me sleep. But, I was wide awake. I tried to lay in darkness with my eyes closed, but ended up not really falling asleep until close to 1am after they took my vitals and the tingling in my hands and feet subsided. I woke up at 4:15am and was wide awake. They took my vitals again at 4:30am and took blood at 5am to check my calcium levels. My drain wasn't full, but they emptied it anyway. At 6:45am, the doctor came by to see me and removed my drain.
He said my calcium levels were still too low, so they were going to increase my dose and dosage to hopefully help bring them back up. He said they didn't give me enough last night, which is why I was having the tingling in my hands and feet (which I knew it was because my calcium was low). They gave me more calcium at 7am (it was originally supposed to be at 9am, but since it was low, he wanted me to have some right then). He said they would give me more calcium at lunch time and take my blood again around 2pm. At that point, they would decide if my levels were ideal enough to send me home.
My mom and HG were coming up to visit me before he got dropped off at daycare and he really wanted to eat breakfast with me, so my mom brought his breakfast and we had a picnic in my room on my bed. <3
I was also able to walk around for about 15 minutes to give my legs some exercise and stretch a bit. By the end of breakfast, I could hardly swallow again, so I asked for another pain pill. That gave me just enough relief so I could stand drinking any water. Once my mom left to take HG to daycare, I took a good 2 hour nap. I really needed it since last night's sleep was not very good quality. I then ordered lunch and took my second calcium for the day. At 2pm, they came by and took my blood to be sent off to see how my calcium levels are looking. At this point, I'm still waiting to hear back on whether or not I'm allowed to go home.
Overall, I feel pretty good. I'm taking it easy and following all of the doctor's orders. The staff here at Methodist have been wonderful and my doctor has been great as well. So far, I've had a really good experience, but I'm definitely ready to be in my own bed!
