Home at last

Hi all

Just got home and feel like shit, pardon my French ! 

Battling very low calcium so have 2 different calcium pills and 3 types of pain pills.

Will catch up later.

Thanks for the good wishes everyone.

Nelly x

Welcome home Nelly, use all the French you want if that describes how you're feeling. It can be quite a shock to the system when your calcium sinks like a stone before your remaining paras wake up and do their thing. You can also experience a thyroid 'storm' too for a while so rest, rest, rest, listen to your body and rest some more. Look forward to hearing from you in due course when you feel up to it. The main thing is - it's done, the pesky punk adenoma is gone, you're on the other side and on the road to feeling well again.

Love and hugs

Jasmine x

Hi Nelly glad you made it home, if you have tums on hand they say it works faster then the calcium supplements. If things don't improve don't hesitate to call the surgeon or go back to the hospital for iv calcium. Hope you feel better so rest up and update when you can. Agree with Jasmine on the thyroid storm.  Kathi

Calcium is 2.26 and pth 0.9 so a big drop on both, surgeon is thinking along the lines of this being my only remaining para gland which will be a bugger. The op was very complicated as it was mixed in and around vocal bits, he was surprised I had any voice. Plus it wasn't where the mibi showed it to be so lost a lymph gland to start with then he had to search out the para, nothing is ever simple.

Can't fault the surgical care it was excellent, can't say the same for the care on the ward ! Surgeon and his Reg visited me 4 times afterwards and had bloods done 4 times so couldn't ask for better aftercare from them, shame some of the nurses on the ward are not so good, one tried to tell me tingling meant I hadn't drunk enough water !!! I gave up after that gem.

Tingling again so another blinking glass of lemon fizzy stuff bloody painful and swollen neck as well 

Hey ho all good stuff.

Nelly

I have no working thyroid so I guess thyroid storm wouldn't apply or would it

Glad your gome nelly! You poor thing whay an ordeal. I'm pleased to hear the surgical team were good to you. And from your bloods like you said a big drop! I bet your glad it's all over and done with
Rachel xxx

Welcome home, Nelly!! You know French is a very beautiful language; especially when you feel like hell!!

Yes, your levels have dropped very nicely. So very happy to hear!

Sorry about the pain, but it will pass! Keep reminding yourself of that. I know it's hard when you're the one hurting.

Glad all went well!

Audrey

I'm so glad you're home Nelly and I really hope you're feeling better this morning. It must have been a long journey from the hospital for you and a relief to get there. Also hoping the pain is lessening by now. 

It sounds like you had brilliant care at the hospital and nurses only think they know everything and have some funny ideas about parathyroids! 

I trust Edwin looked after the animals properly and got you some ice cream! 

Love and hugs 

Brigitte xxxx

Well so far I have nothing positive to report post op, I feel ghastly. 

Have to make it the GP shortly for cal and pth blood test, hopefully it will be quick in and out.

How are you doing Brigitte ? Hope you feel better than I do 

Nelly

Hi Nelly,
Ohhh I really do feel for you, I sincerely hope that you start feeling an awful lot better soon.  I understand that it can take a while for the other paras to wake up and start working again.  Lots of TLC and plenty of rest and good luck at the docs today with your blood tests.  I am sending lots of cyber hugs and please take it easy.
Take care, Sue x

Nelly, I'm sorry you're feeling so rough   No it hasn't been a fun experience for me post op, I must say. I felt so bad on Saturday, I considered going back to the hospital - for a few seconds. In actual fact I went on the Facebook group and got advice from some people there. I ended up taking some calcium which made me feel a good deal better than I did, though it's still not brilliant. I think on consideration, I'd rather be this side of the op though. At least there's more hope... I think. 

I'm just getting ready to go back to the hospital, have the stitches out and see the surgeon, though I don't hold much hope of him having anything interesting to say. He never bothered to come to see me during the time I spent in hospital. 

Hope you feel better soon, Nelly. Take care. 

Love and hugs 

Brigitte xxxx

I'm on very high doses of calcium but it doesn't make me feel any better. Surprising you weren't prescribed it along with Vitd Brigitte, I have to get bloods done weekly until i see my surgeon again then see if the doses can be reduced, depends if i have any paras left or not.

Hope you get on ok at the hospital, interesting to hear what your surgeon has to say for himself !

Nelly

Well, Nelly, it turns out he was never told and I don't think he was lying because he was so surprised. He does acknowledge that calcium levels can fluctuate (wow!) and maybe my body is taking some time to adjust to normal levels of calcium. I might feel better during a tingling, twitching episode if I have a glass of milk! In fact, it does help but it doesn't necessarily last long. He suggests I see my GP. Marvellous. I've got an appointment on Thursday and a long list of niggles, problems and complaints! 

Stitches are out and it looks like it's healed well and I have a bit of a smile on my neck! 

Hope you're feeling a bit better now you've achieved your blood test. 

Love and hugs 

Brigitte xxxx

Hi Nelly, glad you are on the other side of this para journey and hope sincerely that you soon feel the benefits.  I`m pleased that they are testing your bloods every week. Take care 

Hi Brigitte, I suppose its  reassuring that the consultant did not know that you were readmitted into hospital and that's why he didn't show his face. Glad you are healing well. Take care

Brigitte do you know what your calcium and pth levels are now ? 

Your surgeon should have requested weekly blood tests to keep a check on them. My man said levels can go drastically wrong within hours or  days and sometimes weeks after surgery so important to keep testing.

I am on 3000mg calcium a day and 1mcg Alfacalidol and he said as soon as I get tingling to take yet more calcium but I'm not doing that now as it makes the dose massive and i don't want to go hypercal. I'm putting up with the slight tingles and haven't had any bad ones for a couple of days so hopefully its working.

I take my dressing off tomorrow, no stitches to come out. I already have 2 biggish scars from thyroid surgery so not sure where this one will fit in, it's about 3 inches long so a bit bigger than he hoped, but no matter.

Oh well back go watching the telly 

Nelly

No idea what my levels were, Nelly. He's the sort of medical chap that believes he knows best and you shouldn't know too much about your own ailment. He didn't have all my notes anyway so would have only had the levels taken just after the op. Perhaps the GP will know more.... then again, probably not. 

Sometimes a glass of milk works for the tingles and other times I can take a mild calcium and Vit D tablet which stops them. I'm not taking much calcium from tablet form, though I'm eating more things containing calcium. It's sort of a DIY Fix-It thing going on so I can get through the days. I feel better than I did though, so don't think I'm doing myself any harm! 

I only had a couple of stitches sort of drawn together in a weird way, but it looks fine. Still a bit of a swelling and there was a big bruise as well. Hopefully it will all fade away soon. The incision was bigger than I thought it would be, but he did check the other side which is why, supposedly. 

Take care of yourself and enjoy the telly. I'm doing the washing, so I must feel better. I think it breeds in this house  

Love and hugs 

Brigitte xxxx

Glad you two are recovering and healing!

As far as the size of your scar goes, I was expecting mine to be 1" long since that is what Dr. Norman talks about on his site, but it ended up being a bit longer at 1-3/4". I didn't mind at all. Actually, I was hoping it would be longer than 1", because I can only imagine how much tugging and stretching would have been involved if it had only been 1". I would rather have a longer scar than have my skin stretched all out of whack!

Audrey

So glad you are both out the other side of the pesky PTH saga, Brigitte and Nelly!
Just back from holiday and so glad to hear your news. Sorry to hear of the discomfort post-op, but I do hope things are improving daily.

I'm off to the Hammersmith for US and nuclear scans tomorrow, so really hope that an op might be on the cards for me soon.

Keep posting your post-op comments to keep us in the loop.

Love from Tigerlily xxxx