I am 46 years old and have never been sick in my life, but I’ve been having trouble sleeping, for years in fact. I thought I might have Sleep Apnea so I went into the doc last month and he felt a lump in my throat. He referred me to an Endrocinologist, and she diagnosed me with possible Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma. Yesterday I had surgery to remove my thyroid gland; the thyroid proved to be malignant, but the lymph nodes and nearby tissues look to be clean and unaffected. So far, so good.
I’m in good shape physically, and easily shook off the anasthesia afterwards. I am in hardly any pain at all right now. This was my first surgery ever, and I was quite worried about it.
I have to go back in 4 to 6 weeks to take a radioactive pill. This will destroy any remaining thyroid tissues that might have been missed. Then, a pill a day (replacement thyroid homone), for the rest of my life.
As some of you might know, I am trying to get in the best physical shape I can (160 pounds lost; 25 more to go). Anyone ever been through this, or know anyone who has? How does it affect your ability to work out?
My sister-in-law had hers removed about three months ago. Before she had it out, she was lethargic and her eyes were literally bugging out of her head. She had it removed and is now on a thyroid replacement regimen and now that they have her dosage figured out, she’s back to her old active self.
Personally, I have thyroid issues as well. Mine doesn’t work as well as it should, so they’ve got me on a thyroid pill as well. Doesn’t really affect my mood or energy level, but my metabolism has gone to shit. All the progress I’d made on weight loss is gone. Oh well, I guess it’s time to pull out the stops.
Best of luck to you. Now that you know about thyroidism, I bet you’ll find out about a lot of people you know that never mentioned it. Seems to be a fairly wide spread problem lately.
While I watched my mother with the same issue (combined with ovarian), every patient’s recovery and ability to work out is different. Because the thyroid produces hormones responsible for control of metabolism, you may see some changes.
Best suggestion is keep listening to your doctors and your body. You know when something isn’t right. And take your pill. You’ve been put into a medically induced hypothyroid condition, meaning your body is not producing enough Thyroid Hormone (T3 and, by extension, T4). The hormone replacement is what is going to keep you normal. It make take some time to get the dose right, so keep the line of communication open with the doc.
Prayers for continued good health and a speedy recovery on this. You’ll be back kicking ass and taking names in no time, brother.
I have no thyroid. Here’s the 411: hardest part for you will be finding the right dose and or type of thyroid med that makes you feel best. That process can take up to a year, and until you find it, you can and will feel like crap. Be prepared for that.
Some, due to the docs they are working with, never find it. The process can be greatly sped up if you find a good doc willing to work with you vs against you.
Once the dose of thyroid, and or type of thyroid med, is found that works well for you, you’ll feel perfectly fine.
Don’t find the right dose/type of thyroid med, and you’re in for a long nasty hall there.
Read this write up, and be prepared to re read it and or give it to docs if you feel they are not listening to you as you start on your thyroid meds:
Ultimately, once the correct dose of replacement thyroid hormone is found for you, your energy levels and stamina won’t be affected at all. In the short term however, you’ll have trouble with energy because they’ll likely need to take you off all thyroid replacement hormone in the 4-6 weeks before they administer the radioactive iodine. This is done to make all remaining thyroid tissue avidly take up the radioactive iodine and kill those cells, including any residual thyroid cancer cells (there is another method, but it’s expensive and not commonly used). That lack of thyroid hormone will likely make you pretty run down and not at all feel like working out. At some point after the radioactive iodine, they’ll want to do another thyroid scan to see if there’s any active thyroid cells left. If there is, that might mean a second round of off-thyroid hormone, wait 4-6 weeks, then re-administer radioactive iodine.
As I’m sure you were told, the prognosis for papillary thyroid cancer is absolutely excellent.
Way to soldier-on there Wes!! You have the right attitude and I commend you on your progress thus far.
I need to look into possible treatment for my wife who might have a thyroid issue as well. I’m 46 too and need to get some blems on my face looked at. 22 years of maritime enforcement has taken a toll on the mug.
Glad to hear your doing well. I had a thyroid biopsy when I was 25 and everything turned out ok. The only thing I got out of it ws a good scar. I was lucky I had a good doctor who noticed something. It pays to have an annual physical. Hope your future tests go good.
Damn, the temporary hormone replacement meds make me hyper. I had some weird visions last night after I took one at bed-time, but then I actually got some nice deep sleep afterwards.
In addition to what the others have said, how you take the levothyroxine is very important. I’m talking about the daily maintenance drug that will be started in the future, not necessarily the one(s) you are on right now.
Levothyroxine, or any of the other T4 and/or T3 meds have very little difference in strength between a dose that is too little, and a dose that is just right, or a dose that is too high. There are many different strengths. For example, the 125mcg might be too little, and the 137mcg might be just right. There is only about a 9% difference between the two. This small difference means that the percentage of drug which is absorbed must be very consistent in order for your blood levels to remain consistent. When people start taking it with food, or without water the percentage of drug absorbed changes.
This medication needs to be taken religiously first thing in the morning(empty stomach), with a glass of water at least 30 minutes before eating in order to be absorbed consistently. If you don’t take it this way you could find yourself having trouble getting that dose adjusted, meaning more months of not feeling right and getting frustrated. I have met several patients who had troubles with this due to taking it inconsistently.
Does the amount of exercise you do effect the dose as well? I like to do “periodization” throughout the year, changing from light to medium to heavy workout routines each month.
Gaining or losing a significant amount of weight may require the dose to be changed. As far as the exercise itself, I have heard of studies being done on athletes showing some transient small changes in hormone level after days of intense exercise, but they seem to be small changes that would not warrant a dose adjustment. Maybe Will has more info on this.
For the most part, once the right dose is found, it doesn’t change often. Normally people go years without changing dose.
Everybody in the family I married into has or is dealing with this - it can be the most exasperating thing in the world to deal with, and it becomes really easy to find yourself chasing other diagnoses which are just side effects of the T3/T4 ratios being off, many of those medications have side effects of their own.
I guess the positive of this is that it’s less minor than a carcinoma, and if you go to the doc immediately if something just feels off, it’s worth the time.
just a film I saw in passing one night on Netflix… one of the most influential films I’ve ever seen. Watch it when you can and you’ll be completely blown back by it.
I agree on all fronts, experienced some of that myself (and if I had to deal with that, where does that leave your “average” person?) and why I wrote that very specific guide, which could save a person years of problems and issues by using that as a guide.
