Thyroidectomy

So I've been debating whether to post about this but decided I should sense my blog has become basically my journal. Not a very good one I know. Plus I'm bored and have nothing to do. You'll understand this later.

I had a growth on my neck that just kept getting bigger. I had it looked at the beginning of this month. After an ultrasound that confirmed it was on my Thyroid they did a biopsy. This consisted of the doctor inserting a long needle into my not numb neck to extract cells of the growth. After waiting almost a week they said that my growth was follicular, so it was impossible to tell if  the growth was cancer or not by looking at the cell structure. They had to look at the tissue. After much thought,a day of fasting and discussion with the doctor, we  decided to just do a total Thyroidectomy (remove my entire thyroid) and just be done with it.
The surgery was scheduled for Tuesday January 25th. The surgery went fine. I honestly thought it would be a no big deal kind of surgery. Basically that I would just stay the night at the hospital one night and go right back to my normal routine.

Was I ever wrong. The night before I came home from the hospital I started feeling some tingling in my feet and hands. They did a blood draw and my calcium was 7.9 (normal is above 8.0) so it was just barely low. They gave me some tums and checked my calcium levels again at 4:00 am. After more blood draws and more tums they decided to send me home on instructions to take 2 tums 4 times a day and come to the lab by 3:00pm the next day to do another blood draw.  My calcium level was 7.7 so the doctor doubled my tums to 2 - 8 times a day. All that day and into the night I had tingling in my hands and feet and around my mouth.

Thursday night my left hand clamped up. It was the weirdest feeling ever. So I called the doctor in the morning and he sent me to the hospital for another blood draw. My calcium levels were 7.4 so he told me to go the the hospital and he would call them and have them admit me. Shortly after he hung up he called back and told us to go to the ER so that they can do a EKG on my heart. We got to the ER at 7:30pm. They came and did the EKG very quickly. The EKG was fine. They put me on a drip of calcium glucomate (not exactly sure what it was called, something similar to that), basically calcium through an IV. they took another blood draw this time of my ionized calcium. Wich was 1.05 (normal is 1.12 - 1.35) so they told us they were going to admit me which we already new. Finally at 1:30 am they took me up to a room.

I do have to say thank you to Bekah for canceling her date so she could watch Abby and Megan. I really appreciate your help Bekah. I called several family members and they were ether out of town or didn't answer there phone. So thanks for all your help.

At 1:30 I was rolled up to my room in the bed (a really weird feeling I must say). They got me to my room and gave me another vile of calcium glucomate through an IV. While that was being done I was put up to another EKG so the nurse could monitor my heart. They said that your heart can be affected when your calcium is low. So they wanted to keep an eye on it. They also turned on the seizure alarm on my bed, because you can have seizures as well. It would go off anytime a lot of movement accured or I got out of bed. They also padded my bed so that if I had a seizure I would hurt myself. I was scared at this point but new that I couldn't be in a better place. After another hour of asking questions and pocking me with needles (drawing blood and giving me an IV) I was finally able to go to sleep.

Then at 4:30 am the nurse came in again and drew my blood game me more tums to take. She also checked my vitals, etc. I asked her what my calcium levels where at from the blood draw last night. It was 1.08. So she gave me another vial of calcium glucomate through IV.
Then she came in again at 6:30 did another blood draw. No sleep that night. But I really hadn't had much sleep sense I left the hospital anyway.

Basically to make this shorter they got my levels up to 1.13, on Saturday, which is barely normal. Saturday evening the doctor told me she didn't want to release me with them being barely normal.She was nervous that they would just drop down once I went home so they wanted to monitor me some more.Saturday night I felt tingling again so I told the nurse.They did another blood draw. It had dropped a little (1.12). Because it dropped again they wanted to keep me another night in case it drops again. NNow it's Sunday night and I am hoping I can go home Monday. They are going to do another blood draw in the morning. If it's the same or better they might send me home.

The crappy thing about this is I feel fine now that my levels are with in normal range. So sitting in a hospital all day is so BORING. Oh well, it's better for me to be here where they can monitor me.

Fun week for us!!!!

This is why I'm doing a blog post because I am bored out of my mind sitting at the hospital with nothing to do but watch TV, read a book, or surf the web.