A Rather Long Update

The blog title is now official.  Surgery #2 went well.

We checked into the hospital right around 11 last Monday morning and got paperwork taken care of pretty quickly.  I changed into my stylish hospital garments and found out that the doctor actually wanted to move my surgery time up by about 30 minutes - no complaints from me there!  Since everything went so well last time, they gave me all of the same drugs for anesthesia and for nausea, which worked just as well the second time through.  I was told that this surgery itself went faster than the first (I wouldn't know), but that I spent longer in the recovery room.

Last time when I woke up in the recovery room, I remember being very mentally alert but not able to really talk or move for a while.  My doctor came by to talk to me, but all I could really do was mumble, so he had to come back later when I was more awake.  This time, I was much more with it when I woke up, but my throat was hugely sore and I had almost no voice at all - I guess whoever did my intubation this time wasn't as gentle.  I also remember having an argument with myself over whether anesthesia having worn off meant I was supposed to stay awake or not - the sleepy part of me won.

The dinner situation was decidedly better the second time around.  Last time, by the time I got to my room and wanted to eat anything, the cafeteria was closed and all they could bring me that was gluten-free was jello, applesauce, and rice chex, which, while delicious, do not a dinner make.  This time, I asked a nurse if a dinner could be held for me, explaining what had happened before.  She said she would take care of it.  There was a full dinner waiting for me when I got to the room, and it had apparently come up with strict instructions to make sure it was saved for me.

The night was mostly uneventful.  Various nurses came and went throughout the night to check my vitals, take blood to check my calcium levels, see if I needed pain medicine or to go to the bathroom, etc.  I managed to go through the night with only a couple doses of pain meds.  (I took the meds religiously after the first surgery, and I think they contributed to the migraine I had a few days post-op, so this time around I tried to stay off of them as much as possible.)  Knowing the routine was a big help, and I definitely slept better the second time through.  (My incredibly wonderful husband stayed with me both times, though I don't think sleeping in one of the hospital recliners was any better the second time than the first.)

Breakfast, oddly enough, didn't go as smoothly this time.  I had thought that after getting dinner worked out, breakfast wouldn't be an issue.  Somehow, even though it was clearly marked on my dinner that I needed gluten-free, breakfast showed up decidedly not.  We double-checked, because last time when french toast showed up, I just assumed it was a mistake only to find out that it was delightfully gluten-free.  This time, however, was a mistake, but one of my nurses called in and got some of the good french toast sent up for me.

Both times through, all of the nurses I had were incredible.  They were all kind, friendly, and helpful, and to me, their presence and demeanor always felt calm and reassuring - all very much needed and appreciated in a stressful situation.  So a great big THANK YOU to all nurses:  this whole experience has given me a huge appreciation for what you do, and I am so incredibly grateful that there are people like you who can handle it as well as you do.

After we checked out Tuesday, we stopped by our polling place to vote on the way home.  I kept my hospital bracelets on just in case I needed to flash them to get to the front of a line.  There was no one else there, so we were done very quickly with no bracelet-flashing needed (though the woman who signed me in did see them and told me to feel better soon).

Overall, minus the more sore throat, I felt better after surgery #2 than I did after #1.  Maybe it was because after the first surgery, my poor half thyroid couldn't really keep up and I was low on thyroid hormone, whereas this time I started taking synthroid Tuesday morning.  Or maybe it was because this time I only took half doses of vicodin and switched off of it pretty quickly and that stuff really messes with me more than I think.  Whatever the reason, I was feeling pretty good about everything.

And then on Thursday night, I got leveled with a stomach bug.  A really nasty stomach bug.  A 'sleep on the bathroom floor because you're not going anywhere else' kind of stomach bug.  About 12 hours after it all started, I was finally able to keep some water down again.  And it wasn't until the next day that I was eating food with any amount of confidence.  One big problem with not being able to keep anything down is that 'anything' includes medicine, and that includes thyroid medicine.  So combine the stomach bug with missing my medication on Friday, and the result is that my speedy recovery turned into me only starting to feel normal again today (which is part of why this update is so late).

But the surgeries are over.  My thyroid is completely gone - and the good news is that the pathology on the left side came back clean.  Next week is my first appointment with an endocrinologist, and that's when we'll find out what happens next.