Feelings of electricity in body after thyroid removed

[rainbowcone]

My sister just had her thyroid removed 2 weeks ago. Ever since she has this terrible feeling of electricity going through her body. She was told it is in connection with calcium intake levels. It is taking what appears to be an inordinate amount of time to balance whatever it is that is creating this presentation. Referrals to specialists to fix it are far off when a person is in such great discomfort. Is there anything that can be done in the meanwhile?  Why does this happen? Is it common?

[lilypad300]

I had a TT on 8/4/08 and my levels just came back around recently.  I started out on massive amounts of calcium & calcitriol (cit. d) and am now down to 1500mg of calcium & 1 calcitriol .5 a day.  
I'm still having weekly blood work to make sure that my levels stay up where they belong, but my endo is pretty sure that my parathyroids have finally kicked back in.  
I ended up back in the hospital a couple of days after I was released and put on a calcium drip because my levels dropped so low, so if she is feeling really bad, muscle cramps, dizzy, severe tingling etc. that calcium supplements don't alleviate, get her to the ER.

best of luck!

[nissah46]

Did they test her levels before she was discharged?  I take 2000mg of calcium daily along with 1000iu VitD to help absorb the calcium.  It is not uncommon after total thyroidectomy(TT).  She needs to have her calcium checked, and if it is low, get on supplements.  If she does need calcium, it is important not to take it until 4 hours after synthroid, because it would interfere with the absorption of the synthroid. Also, my pharmacist said that we can only absorb 500mg. of calcium at a time, so I have to stagger it throughout the day.