Post op

Hi Kimmy89 and welcome to the forum. I hope you will feel less alone as you'll find many members here going though or having been through similar to you, most of whom have a wealth of experience and advice. No one understands better than those who have been through it themselves.

Did you mean you had your op on 22^nd feb? No wonder you still feel fatigued! Please try not to be too hard on yourself. You will hopefully be having blood tests for your TSH levels and until they are somewhere near acceptable levels it can make you feel exhausted. It can take a quite a while to get that balanced. I went from doing 10ks to being exhausted just climbing the stairs! Very frustrating. Also yes I felt anger too but that does fade with time and acceptance. Do contact your team and specialist nurse if you have any worries, I have found them invaluable.

With regards to your Mum, I found I got frustrated, upset and yes angry too trying to explain to family and friends I actually didn't miraculously “feel better” or “well again” after my op, so now I just say I'm fine to those. You will sift through those who really stick with you and are there for you and truly do want to know how you are and feel. In hindsight I think part is lack of understanding on their part and part them wanting to block it out, as they don't want to hear you're not better or deal with it when you say no you're actually not feeling okay, not strong, not brave and then not knowing what to say. My parents are in their 90s so of a generation that don't talk about feelings or illness, that's been hard. There's a link on this Macmillan site about toxic positivity aswell, very insightful.

Please feel free to ask any questions or it's fine to rant away. It's not the quickest of platforms like you may be used to but believe me it's far more valuable to get honest, experienced replies from those who truly know. Take care and let us know how you're doing x

I had my operation Tues 13th Feb I am still very tired and find that if I go out to the shops etc I need about an hour's sit down at least to recover.

Hi, yes it was February. Its been a very hard week trying to come to terms with what I've been through. I have never usually been bothered about how I look as I'm not a model but I just don't want to be seen I lost my hair to stress and hate seeing my neck now knowing that there are just some unkind people that will make fun. I know they say it will fade but the thought of having to explain what I'm going through is not fun I just feel like I have a huge beacon lit above me all the time now. 

I did the school run this morning and it's the first time since the op I just bought a huge polo neck so that nobody saw my scar as at the weekend I noticed people looking at me at the shops I just dn't want anyone to ask in the playground and stare so I've bought a new scarf too it will get easier as my scar has already improved loads from last week I'll be at 2 weeks post op tomorrow so in a month i imagine the scar gets much less noticeable.

I hope you feel some kind of relief from doing the school run and hope you felt OK before going. I think I'm finding it hard as not many people know im actually going through this only very close family and friends. As it all happened very quickly. I'm proud of you for going out. I have brought myself some new scarfs so I'm going to use them .

I'm 8 months down the line and yes it does fade and it faded very quickly, you can hardly see mine now and mine is ear to ear! I used bio oil when I was able to touch it and I think that's helped a lot. I too at the moment wear a polo neck and a scarf but mainly because I had a neck dissection aswell and it gets very tight if it's cold. I honestly don't think people always look that hard to see it, no one has ever asked me what it is because that would just be rude and anyone that makes fun? How cruel. Well you don't need them in your life. I originally worried like you about what everybody else would think/say far too much but I honestly think most people are just getting on with their own stuff and aren't really interested. I now remind myself how lucky I am that it was caught when it was and I'm still here for my daughter.

I have yo admit I was very lucky how mine was found I was have a scan for something else and was picked up then. Has been a very quick 3 months I am hoping my scar will reduce as I was told it would be small. Before surgery they surgeon said it would be small so when I see 10 clips I burst into tears and didn't like the size at all. I have to admit it is healing a lot better than I thought I still can't touch it and have very funny sensation on the right side of my chin makes me feel funny if I touch it. 

I had my thyroid out 12 th Feb  I'm so tired  went for a 2 mile walk and it nearly killed me  constant coughing  but I'm having radiodene so don't know what to expect   anyone had the same experience  feeling a bot low  thanks guys