What to expect for partial thyroid surgery recovery?

Hi unistudent2002,

I'm sorry to hear you've had this diagnosis. I'm concerned about the blasé way you say you've been told! When I was given my results (FNA, biopsy and ultrasound) there was a specialist cancer nurse in there too, who gave me her direct contact details there and then for the questions we all inevitably only think of when we get home. This diagnosis is a huge shock whatever age you are but you are very young at 21 and you should've had access to a team of people to support you right there. I'm the grand old age of 57 and it's been hard enough!

The challenge is of course mental aswell as physical. You sound very upbeat in your message which is good. I have a 20 year old daughter and I know a lot goes on underneath, so this really struck a chord with me and I felt I had to reply.

You have your diagnosis now after your “bumpy road” and the swift surgery date in 2 weeks is really good, with staging and histology soon to follow. Great that you contacted Macmillan and will hopefully soon have the specialist nurse details. They have a lot of help available, including some very experienced friendly members on this forum and counsellors to help you through this.

In my opinion I would be telling your exam board of your diagnosis so you then have options. If you feel okay then you can do them but it gives you peace of mind if you've not been able to get straight back to it, then you have that option in place to delay them.

I'm sorry my personal experience won't really help your op and recovery questions as mine is Medullary thyroid cancer treated differently and I needed a more extensive op but hopefully you will gain some insight from reading others experiences on here and hopefully those that have had similar ops will reply shortly to help. Something I've learnt though is no two people's thyroid cancer, ops and recoveries are the same, as individuals we react and heal very differently. That could be why the consultants are very “careful” with their answers on recovery expectations! :)

I've also seen the odd post from younger people like yourself with thyroid cancer, so maybe if you start another post with your age in the subject they may see it.

I hope it all goes well for you and you recover quickly and are able to get back to your studies and exams x

Hi,

Thank you so much for your reply - I read it when you posted it but I had so much going on that I didn't have the headspace to get back to you. 

I'm now almost 1 month post-op, and other than feeling utterly exhausted I've recovered really well! I've had my follow-up appointment with the consultant now and they've told me I'm going to need the rest of my thyroid removed and radioactive iodine therapy due to it being larger than expected and found in one of my lymph nodes. 

I've been much more tired than I expected, so I'm going to postpone my exams next week unfortunately, and due to further surgery, I might have to interrupt my studies this year which I'm quite disappointed about. 

Anyway, that's my brief update, and I really appreciated your response prior to my first surgery! <3 

Good to hear you're doing okay and have recovered well after your first op. The fatigue is dreadful, try and rest as much as you can even though I know from experience it feels frustrating. Of course you're feeling disappointed that you have to interrupt your studies but at least you can get on top of this now and get your second treatments out of the way, then you can get back to your studies.

I was thinking of you the other day when I came across another post from someone young like you, I think the username was Pinkbluepurple? I also think there might be a dedicated young persons forum on here aswell, might be worth checking out if you want to.

I hope your further surgery and treatments go well, let us know how you're getting on :)

Thank you for updating, I confirmation yesterday that I'll have the left half taken in a week or so. Can I ask, how were you in the days afger surgery, were you able to move around much?