Best treatment after tt

[joy323]

Hi everyone. Just joined the club. Have surgery scheduled at loma linda ca. on 05/24/11. have multi nodular goider with two large zysts about 2-3 cm. and several smaller zysts with one close to me vocal cords. The Lord blessed me with what people call a beautiful voice. I pray that I will be able to continue to sing contemporary christian songs to my guitar and lead worship in small groups. I try not to worry and pray that  the surgeon will do a good job and trust that I will be lead into good follow up treatment. I must admitt that reading a lot of these comments regarding major problems with emotional and sleep issues scares me quite a bit. I really appreciate this site and particularly thank the person recommending Thyrolar. They plan to remove all my thyroid even though it seems to be benign,given the size and numbers of my nodules I also have a very good doctor who treats wholistically and preferrs natural products but works also with medicine if meritted. Please any supportive hopeful comments are appreciated.

[MANmom]

joy323, I, too am a singer, I can tell you that as long as you have a REALLY good surgeon, you will sing again.  I was getting hoarse, I had several nodules.  We removed 1/2 hoping to alleviate the hoarseness, it worked, however they did find cancer.  After another surgery my voice was clear and strong.  Now i am without a thyroid, on the right meds and feel great.  I am back singing with my semi-professional choir and teaching privately again.  A great surgeon does at least 2 thyroids a week.  Make sure you are not going to be operated on by a student (I think Loma Linda is a teaching hospital).  ASK your surgeon and tell him your concerns.  Make his aware that you are a singer and do not need someone practicing on you.  They essentially have to "peel" the tissue from your recurrent laryngeal nerve which controls your vocal function.  If they even knick the nerve, you could have damage. ALSO, tell the person who is doing the breathing tube to please be careful when they place the tube down your throat, that you are a singer and that damage to your chords would be disastrous.   With dilligence, you should be fine.  There is always a slight chance that you could have damage, but if you do what I suggest, your chances at a full recovery are best.

[danie17075rm]

I am scheduled to have my thyroid out on June 27.  Good luck, I'd love to know how it goes for you.

[Barb135]

Once your thyroid is removed, you will most likely be placed on a thyroid replacement medication.  There are a variety to choose from and it seems, you might already have chosen Thyrolar.  

Everyone is different and we all react differently medications, so if one med doesn't work for you, you can try another.  

Most of the time, the hardest part about being hypothyroid (which you will be after your surgery, if you aren't already) is getting the right dosage.  Often doctors try to start patients at too high doses, which causes a lot of trouble.  It's generally best to start at lower doses, test every 6 weeks and increase med as indicated by symptoms and lab results (those being Free T3 and Free T4, not just TSH).  It takes longer to get the end result, but is much better than bouncing all over the place........ slow and steady wins the race......

As to your voice, you'll need to trust your surgeon and pray that it remains as good as it is now.  At one point, I was facing the possibility of not being able to talk at all (not completely thyroid related). I've had 2 surgeries on my actual vocal cords and my ENT/ surgeon did a wonderful job; my voice is better than it's ever been (still can't carry a tune, though).  

Best to you, please let us know how you turn out.  Will pray for you.

[gimel]

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