On the mend

On the 25th I had surgery on my thyroid.  I went in at 9:00 like scheduled.  Surgery was supposed to be at 10:30.  As I was waiting for 10:30 to roll around they came in and said there had been an emergency and my surgery wouldn't begin until 1:30.  Well, that's fine however I was STARVING because I hadn't had anything to eat or drink since 8:00 the night before, and they wouldn't allow me to get up and move about.  I was in a hospital gown and had a IV started so they wanted me to lay there.  Since my back surgery years ago I have a big problem laying in one spot for any length of time before my back begins to hurt and my restless leg thing begins to bother me.  So, those last 2 hours prior to going in for surgery were terrible.  Bill and Britt got to wait with me.  I kept telling them they could leave and come back after my surgery was over but they are just as stubborn as I am and so they stayed.

Surgery was fairly quick, I think it was only an hour and a half.  He did not have to remove my thyroid, just the nodules and he said he did some scraping of a few areas just to make sure he didn't leave anything behind.  He said pathology came back clear on the nodules but he didn't like the looks of things.  I will make an appointment with him today and go in for a follow up in about 10 days.  I was home yesterday by about 3:00 in the afternoon and for the most part went to bed. 

Here is how it looked this morning.............

After surgery it hurt pretty bad.  Mostly muscular it seemed, and when I would try and raise up out of bed and strain those muscles.  I got sick the night after surgery.  I think it was from the anesthesia.  So, I was on a liquid diet after that.  Finally yesterday afternoon right before they released me to come home I ate a turkey sandwich and some soup.

Today I am not nearly as sore.  I still cannot turn my head very well, and my voice sounds like Bea Arthur (Dorothy on the golden girls, or Maude).  It is tender when I swallow.  I expect this only to last a few days.  The voice and throat.  All in all, it went smooth.

He said he left the thyroid and just took the nodules out.  Then scraped a few areas.  He actually said he "was not kind" to a few places in my throat.  He said there were suspicious looking areas that he "took care of". 

Layla came to see me the first night, and while there lost her first tooth while chewing gum.  It became quite an event and she ended up having her tooth carried home in a urine specimen container (new of course!).  She told her mom she wanted to go right home and to bed so the tooth fairy would come.   LOL  She said she would always remember losing her tooth the same day grandma got her throat cut.  LoL!!!  She is so darned cute!

I started to get congestion in my chest the morning after surgery.  I did my best to cough it out, but coughing with my throat sore didn't work very well.   Last night when I went to bed I noticed again when I laid down that my chest would begin to get phlegm in it.  Today I have coughed (ouch) and nothing is coming up, and it doesn't seem bad ... but anytime my chest rattles makes me nervous. 
I am thinking if I still have the feeling of something in my chest tomorrow I may call my Primary Care Dr. and ask her if I should possibly get a series of steroids and antibiotics?  I just would hate to get a chest infection now.  I have done so well since I quit smoking about not getting a chest cold, or pneumonia.  There was only one time I started running a little fever with green mucous in my nose that they doctor told me ... Anytime you feel like you are getting Anything respiratory to call them for antibiotics and steroids. 

So, I was going to blog about this before, then got side tracked, then had surgery and forgot.  A couple blogs ago I got a strange message from an anonymous person.  It made me think I was whining, or stating incorrect facts or something?  Maybe I am just being overly sensitive... it just wasn't my usual comments, and almost personal or something.  It's the first time any one's comments ever bothered me or made me question myself ... Just left me with an odd feeling.