Re-Visiting After Thyroid Surgery

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jeremydrums

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Hello all,I have not been here for a few months-after my second normal EMG in March 2014. On April 30, I had half of my thyroid removed for multiple nodules that were causing pain and mild compression symptoms. Final pathology is still pending (2 normal biopsies but you never know until result is final). Pain is a bare minimum now and I am off work for now of course. Started noticing increasing twitching in all limbs/face shoulder after anesthetic-it's very irritating since my symptoms were barely there prior to surgery. Has anyone else experienced this? My spouse has been very unsupportive through most of this other than the actual day of surgery, my son needed help studying last weekend (which I did despite my intense fatigue because when my husband decides to be useless that's it) and my daughter just finished a very difficult term at University with almost daily crying spells/anxiety-fortunately she did all right in the end and I am very proud of her. My anxiety is of course at an all time high as I wait for the pathology results (end of this week likely) and being a GP myself, I have 2 patients with thyroid cancer who thank goodness are fine. I have never known anyone to die from this but can't help worrying, as a diagnosis of cancer means removing the other half of the gland and going through this all over again. I am eating normally, and resting some-although again my husband has been more of a burden then a help!! Any words of wisdom to help with the waiting?J
 
Hi jebmd, So sorry you are having to endure this! You know better than I that most thyroid cancers are benign, especially with two benign biopsies done. But, I certainly can relate to that stress. It is so stressful to have any bit of my flesh sitting somewhere in a lab being analyzed, or having the analysis done but not revealed. I can also relate to an increase in twitching with increased stress. I think many people here would agree. Not certain if there is any correlation with anesthesia. Certainly anesthesia has many odd effects reported, this one would not be a surprise. The resentment at your husband always there with that personality certainly could be another contributing factor, with you defenses being down now with an illness or medical situation. My words of wisdom? I should probably keep it to myself, but since you asked...I think you should lose 150#...dump your husband and flush. Just kidding! But I could not resist. He sounds much like my brother-in-law. Hang in there, you will get back to your baseline soon. Rest and love up your kids.
 
Hi Leaflea,Unfortunately, the pathology confirmed a well differentiated papillary thyroid cancer in the one nodule that was never biopsied because it was so small-4 mm (surgeons/radiologists do not usually biopsy anything smaller than 1cm). Figures!!! I have spoken with both my surgeon and two endocrinologists, one of them a thyroid cancer specialist. All have said that nothing further needs to be done surgically because it was confined to the thyroid with no invasion of the vascular/lymphatics or thyroid capsule. I will need to be on thyroid suppression for the rest of my life and have already started it. Being a doctor has its disadvantages though-I was not comfortable with leaving the other half of the gland in so I will be having it removed on June 5th-same surgeon (and he did my appendix last year too)-hopefully, this will be the last time he comes at me with a scalpel!! I had an ultrasound this week, and the left thyroid lobe is clear of nodules and all the lymph nodes look normal-so hopefully, this pathology WILL be negative and I can get on with my life. Not the answer I was hoping for certainly, but at least the prognosis is good. I was told by the cancer specialist that I could have lived with this my whole life without it ever causing any problems which was reassuring-sometimes it is better not to know things. I have been having incessant twitching in my left upper eyelid for the last 10 days-I hope this goes away soon too, it is very annoying.Thanks for asking,J
 
Oh man, what you have been through. The stress of it certainly causes eye twitching! Is it possible the tiny little cancer could have caused paraneoplastic twitching? It seems it would have progressed much faster if it was with deteriorating symptoms. I am glad the prognosis is good. Even if it was not confined, my understanding is that if one must have cancer, thyroid would be the kind to have. It is good that it was discovered.
 
Hi there,Yes, the endocrinologist said the same thing about "picking the cancer well" in terms of outcome. I have 2 patients with thyroid cancer 2006 and 2012 diagnoses (the one from 2006 had multifocal, bilateral disease and had surgery and radioactive iodine ablation and is doing well-she is a pharmacist!) and my family doctor has 5 (including me) and one presented with substantial local neck invasion in her 20s and has gone on to get married and have kids so all is looking good. I have resumed working and the eye twitching has settled in the last few days finally, all other twitching is back to baseline. My second surgery is in one week-hopefully all pathology will be negative and then it will be suppression therapy forever and yearly US, I would rather not have to do radioactive iodine ablation. In the meantime, my husband is going away for a conference and will be back the day before surgery and my mother is coming one week after surgery to help out with house chores etc. I hope I recover just as quickly, although the fatigue is still there. I will work until the day before surgery just to keep from worrying all the time-and I have stopped looking at the internet, all it does is freak me out!Take care and I will keep you updated,J
 
Please do, I wish you well. Absolutely stay away from google. I don't google (almost) anything to do with health any more if it could bring something scary, but maybe something straightforward like "pink eye". I even stay away from this site - sometimes it helps a lot, and sometimes not so much. It helped so much in the beginning, I like to give back a bit. Good luck with everything you have going!
 
Hi Jebmd I had my thyroid removed last week and I think the Anesthesia is doing something to me as well. I wrote you a personal message take care.
 
Hi all,So the pathology came back on the other half of my thyroid and all is well. The surgeon had to auto transplant one of my parathyroids back in but it looks like two out of four are intact. I will be getting a blood test next week to check on my calcium level, it was low after surgery. I have been taking vitamin D and calcium carbonate. The eye twitching had died down before the second surgery and now is back again with all the other annoying little twitches all over in my limbs-I am so tired of all this, but hopefully, things will settle down again. Thank God I had the two EMGs that I did already, otherwise I'd be letting the twitching get the better of my psyche again. I am off work again until June 25th so am trying to refocus my energy on looking after myself, my kids and my home for the next two weeks-my son has exams every day and his stress level is rising exponentially. My mother is coming to stay tomorrow to help with meals and just to keep things sane and calm, she's good at that. Hope all of you are well, especially you RedKnight, don't know if you got my last message. Hopefully things are settling down from your thyroid surgery as well.Cheers,J
 
Take care of yourself! Good to hear you are on the other side of this now. Any chance this thyroid cancer caused the twitching in a paraneoplastic kind of way? Just breathe.
 
Leaflea,I have never heard of thyroid cancer causing twitching and mine was discovered by accident on a CT scan while investigating some other unrelated abdominal symptoms. I have had many cancer patients over the years with different tumours and have never had even one whether treated and cured or terminally Ill ever complain of twitching. All my blood work before surgery was fine as well. I very much doubt that my twitching is related to the thyroid. It is subsiding again now so hopefully soon the last eight months will be only a distant memory-with a scar to match!J
 
Thanks I found out I had hosimotos disease and they said it could cause muscle twitching but it seems since I've had it out thing have gotten worse. I had a hematoma from the surgery that I'm just getting over that was a nightmare it was literally making choke and I couldn't breath scary feeling. Glad your doing well hit me up if you have any questions ok.
 

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