Surgery and Complications

As if I should have expected anything different (considering I was the 1% of people allergic to the meds for Graves), I also had complications from surgery...

The surgery itself went well.  I remember the surgical staff in good spirits, the anesthesia being amazing and waking up feeling groggy, but OK.  My incision is actually pretty small..maybe an inch and the healing of the incision has been great..and has very little pain

My throat hurt (from the breathing tube), and my voice is still raspy (think Stevie Nicks).. I have trouble saying EE and AY...and I can't use a stern or loud deep voice "Kaya, Come" sounds very timid...but I am hoping that is OK longterm (the Surgeon is checking my vocal cords on Monday, but says they stayed in-tact during the surgery).

My PTH (Parathyroid hormone) levels dropped (they were either stunned or damaged during the surgery) and they control the calcium to your body, so they put me on calcium supplements and Vitamin D3 (simulates the parathyroid hormone), watched my levels, and I was discharged on Tuesday afternoon.

Background:  Calcium is the most important mineral to your body - it controls your muscles - your heart is a muscle and if calcium is low, your heart stops working properly...

I was excited to be home and see the kids, but by Wednesday morning, I was feeling pretty bad, tingling, disoriented...kind of in a cloud (all signs of low calcium).  I called my doc and they said to go to the ER to get my blood checked for calcium levels.  After a longtime in the ER (and a few IVs of Calcium) I got admitted.  They had to draw my blood every 4 hours, I had a few EKGs, I had patches all over me to monitor my heart rate and blood flow.  Basically I was scared to death.  I cried alot (anxiety is brought on by low calcium levels, too - Woo hoo [insert sarcastic tone]).

I had some more calcium IVs in the hospital along with Magnesium, a lot of back and forth with Dr's and nurses and eventually went on a liquid form of calcium for optimal absorption.  The hospital stay was not fun, I had a bad roommate, a good roommate, and then a room to myself (ahhh).  I had med students checking me out because I was a good sample case (that isn't common to see) and they were all interested to see how things were going with me.  (I had a good party trick where you tap the side of my face and my lip twitched, fun).

I was in the hospital from Wednesday - Friday (and almost had to stay another night because they didn't give me a dose of calcium correctly for 12 hours because the computer said they couldn't -ughh).  Basically, there were a lot of ups and downs and finally they released me on Friday.

Friday night I had anxiety from 11:30 - 6 at home ..I think this was really just my mind scared about my heart without the "security" of the hospital.  I called my endo and she said "you have been through a lot - you had graves, surgery, your hormones are all over the place - you may just be anxious because of what you are going through..'' I agree with her..

Once I took a nap (and a xanax) I felt much better.  I had dinner (my birthday dinner), played with the kids and have a glimpse at feeling better.  Let's hope this path continues :)

What has been great, though is the support of my family and friends. My Mom is still here with me and  my Dad and Sis came to visit, plus all the Facebook posts really made me feel good.  My husband has been amazing, too.  Needless to say I am feeling the love and that definitely helps.

There is still a journey for me to getting to 100%, but I have to remember to have patience....