Calcium after Thyroidectomy

Hi Hayley, I'm sorry your calcium levels have been affected. I just wanted to reply when I saw you hadn't had any responses. Hopefully someone with more experience of this will be on soon. Unfortunately I'm not going to be much use as my calcium levels weren't affected but I know how desperate I got stuck in hospital without answers to my questions (and I wasn't on this forum at that point). I found my Clinical Nurse specialist was invaluable and she replied straight away to my emails or when she'd relayed my questions to my consultant and she popped in to see me when she could. Are you able to contact yours while you're there? X

Thank you for replying! I have managed to speak to an ENT surgeon now today who has explained things a little clearer to me so that has been helpful! I’ll definitely contact the clinical nurse specialist in future though if I need any questions answering

Hi Hayley,

My calcium and PTH dropped as well after my surgery. It took a couple days for the calcium levels to build up to a point where I was allowed to go home. 1 tablet every 4hrs. I think it’s fairly common that the parathyroid glands get stunned during the surgery and can take a little while to start back up again. I’m still on the calcium tablets quite a few months later but I hope that’s not the case for you! Wishing you all the best with your recovery and hope you’re home by now!

Hi thank you for taking the time to reply! I’ve been on 2 tablets 3 times a day but have just been reduced to 2 times a day now. I’ve also been told I’ll be on them for a few months. Hopefully we both can get off them at some point fingers crossed!  Good luck too with everything! 

Hi how long were you in hospital for I'm having thyroidectomy on Wednesday I've been told 1 to 2 nights hopefully only 1. Was it painful when you woke up. How long before you could start getting up after surgery sorry for all the questions I'm not one to be sitting around.

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Hi! I should have been in for one night but I ended up having issues with my calcium so it was 8days but that was just unlucky more than anything.
Pain wise I was fine, and was up straightening my hair that evening and moving about. It will be a bit more painful if you need a drain as I did for my hemithyroidectomy in January, but I was still able to move about.

I recommend getting a V-Shape pillow to help sleep as I found lying down difficult but apart from that all was fine! Good luck with your surgery, hope all goes well!  

I was only in for 1 night and I did have a drain for my full thyroidectomy. They gave me fentanyl before I woke up so pain wise it was okay but I was in pain and the drain just felt tender and weird! My calcium was slightly low so was given calcium supplements to take home. Everyone’s different but agree that a v shape pillow really helped me! My neck has been really tight and sore since the surgery but everyone heals differently! 

Hi thanks for reply I've already got v shaped pilliow ready I'm sure I'll be fine and in good hands

Hi how long did you take your calcium tablets for I've been given 28 days of adcal d3 1500mg 2 tablets twice a day. Just  a bit worried I'm having to much as calcium levels were normal on blood test I had last Monday but parathyroid blood test was 1.3 so a little low. 

Hi, my operation was 7 weeks ago today and I’m still taking Calvive 1000mg 2 tablets twice a day and Alfacalcidol 1mg once a day. My dose has decreased with the calcium though as it originally was 2 tablets 3 times a day which they did so based on a calcium reading of 2.49 and PTH blood test of 2.2.

However since that my PTH has dropped to 0.7 but my calcium has stayed roughly the same despite the decrease so I’m now waiting to see if it was an inaccurate reading as the consultant doesn’t understand why my PTH would drop once it had increased. 

I do think they gradually reduce the dose according to your calcium readings, so I guess it depends on what that currently is.