[brandimomof2]

I just wanted to get some others experience on thyroid removal surgery with hyper. I have a large thyroid glad that they want to take out. I am pg right now so waiting till the baby is born to have the surgery. I really want to avoid surgery but they said the radioactive cocktail wouldnt work on a large thyroid like mine. I can tell its getting bigger and bigger because of the pressure on my throat. I just dont want the surgery but not sure there is any other options. I will get the biopsy done after baby gets here as well to make sure its not canerous which my Dr said he didnt think it was.

I would like to hear others stories on having there thyroid out and if there were any side effects or complications. How long was recovery and if it was a painful recovery. Also did having the surgery make it difficult for you to lose weight or did you gain weight afterwards?

Did you try any natural methods to clear it up and did they work?

Thanks

[4 Butterflies]

Personally, I'd rather they remove it then to swallow poison. I don't know anyone who tried to treat it naturally and have been successful. There are a handful of ladies on this board who have done both methods of RAI and removal, though. Hopefully, they will chime in.

[Erin.minus.thyroid]

i had mine removed because i was hyper and it was enlarged. i was given the option of surgery or radioactive iodine after a year of it not shrinking or getting better.

First, if this has just started recently while you are pg i would wait a little while after your baby is born to do any procedure (continue your meds though). There is something called postpartum hyperthyroidism that is triggered by pregnancy. Usually it happens after the baby is born but it might happen while you are pg. it is temporary and eventually clears its self up. I got mine when my son was about 4months old but mine never got better so it that didnt work for me.

Ive heard that this type of thing sometimes just fixes itself after you take your meds for a while but that didnt happen for me either. Mine didnt keep growing after i was taking my meds so that was good. If yours is continuing to grow, that might not be a good sign that its going to go away on its own.

I chose surgery because i wanted more children. You are not even supposed to be in the same house as children after RI. You are supposed to not touch things in your house and pretty much be in isolation in your home for a while (a week maybe, i dont remember exactly it was several years ago). You also shouldnt try to have kids anytime soon after the procedure. The idea of being radioactive didnt sound appealing to me and wouldnt mesh with being pg. The other reason i didnt choose RI is that it sometimes doesnt work and you have to do it again or do surgery in the end anyway. I didnt want to have to deal with all the RI stuff (which i thought was worse than surgery) and end up with surgery anyway.

The surgery itself was not bad at all. I was terrified! it was my only surgery in my life and i was scared. I was talking to my DH about if i didnt make it out, etc. He laughed at me BTW since it was such a simple procedure. It was really quick and fairly painless. They had me drugged up after the surgery and i went home the same afternoon after a morning surgery. I only took the pain killers the 2nd day and after that i didnt need them at all. They used this tape to close the opening so there werent any stitches or anything and the scar was not that bad. It healed really quickly and you barely notice it now.

For me the surgery was the easily part though. I have had major issues with regulating my thyroid meds since the surgery. they tell you that taking a synthyroid a day will make you back to normal and its just not true for most ppl. It took 3yrs from my surgery date to get my levels to normal. I had to switch docs because my old doc wasnt willing to give anything besides synthyroid. I ended up getting adrenal disease along with it because my thyroid problem was not treated properly. I ended up on Erfa thyroid from Canada and it has worked wonders for me. I have been feeling much better and i was cleared to start TTC a few months ago. Unfortunately, i did have a m/c which is often associated with thyroid disorders but im not sure that was the problem since my thyroid tests came back normal.

As for the weight issue....im sad to say that its a horrible battle. I think that hypothyroidism is a death sentence for your figure. My husband jokes that i defy the laws of physics because you are supposed to follow the natural equation of calories in - calories burned = fat....well that doesnt really apply to us. Ive done the calorie counting, the exercise, the math....it doesnt work like it should. Ive given up on the idea of ever being where i should be again but i do know that i have to keep trying because slipping up even a little means much more weight than it would for others who have "normal" thyroids
Good luck to you whatever you decide. I hope your journey is an easier one than mine.

[Rochelle7]

I had mine removed at the age of 13 and I wish they never did. I had the radioactive pill. Now I have weight issues bc of my screwed up metabolism and I have to take a pill for the entirety of my life. If there were ever a disaster and I was unable to obtain my medication, I would die. If I still had a thyroid it may have been possible to control it with herbs, I'll never know bc it was removed without my consent bc I was a child. They even had mine regulated when they decided to get rid of it. Made no sense whatsoever.

I'm not a doctor, I don't know your situation exactly but I would urge anyone who still has their thyroid to think twice about other ways to control it without completely removing it. I wish I had it to do over again.

GL with whatever you decide.

[MeganMomof5]

mine was removed and i'd much rather go through surgery than the RAI...I haven't had RAI yet, but I heard it's worst than surgery and recovery...I had my surgery done on a wed and was home by friday...It was painful, but I was almost back to myself in a week....I've actually forgotten a lot of it, so it must not of been too bad...They gave me lots of pain medications and it helped...I think the worst part was just trying to sleep in the days after surgery.

[daisyduck]

Originally Posted by Erin.minus.thyroid

As for the weight issue....im sad to say that its a horrible battle. I think that hypothyroidism is a death sentence for your figure.

Respectfully, I kinda disagree with you. Please don't think this way! It is possible to lose weight, although I admit that sometimes it can and does make it harder to lose weight when one is hypo. Last year, my TSH was almost where it should be - 2.14 - a tad too high for me, but almost right where it whould be, and I lost 28 pounds fairly easily on Weight Watchers from February - June. I'm sure I could have worked even harder and lost even more, because I really didn't exercise very much. If it's hard to lose weight, maybe levels are still too high. Even a TSH of 3 can make weight loss difficult, so I've been told. And I know for me, I used to try limiting calories myself, and just paying attention to portions and trying to eat more whole foods. That made me feel better, but I didn't lose weight like that. I'm certainly not trying to plug WW, because everyone's different in what they want to try, but I'm just saying, I found a system that did the math for me on how much I put into my body. And I had to do that consistently in order to really see results, not just a day or two here and there, kwim? I hope this is coming across the way I intend, to be encouraging, not discouraging! Please just don't give up!

Also, I think I've mentioned on here a couple times that some doctors recommend going completely soy-free (almost everything in packaged foods has soy) and even gluten-free (seems like autoimmune can sometimes go hand-in-hand with gluten intolerance). It may take a special diet free of soy and gluten to help some people lose weight. I dunno, but it's interesting to think about.

[Chatterbox]

I had my thyroid removed due to cancer and then had the RAI. The surgery wasn't bad and I was in the most pain after recovery. I had great meds, and was more uncomfortable during my recovery at home. After that, I was tired for the most part due to no thyroid.

After the surgery I had the RAI. It wasn't terrible, just incredibly lonely being isolated for about a week. If you have kids, the RAI will be worse because you can't hold your kids, etc for longer than the isolation depending on your amount of RAI and the regulations that go with it and the age of your kids.

Good luck with your decision.

Tami