Home from the hospital

Only one night in the hospital and then home. One of the major concerns after a thyroidectomy is one's calcium levels. Before the surgery, I was given lots of Vitamin D as it aids in the absorption of Calcium. It looks like the Vitamin D is doing its job - my calcium levels are normal! I'm taking 3,000 milligrams of calcium a day for the next month to ensure that my calcium levels stay up. If my face, fingers, or toes start getting tingly, I have to take tums by the handful to make sure that my calcium levels stay up.

Today has been spent almost entirely in bed. I'm positive that I've spent more time sleeping in the last two days than Alexander. Of course, Dad says that Alexander only took an 1 1/2 hour nap today so I guess I'm beating him as far as the naps go.

I'm in mild discomfort - my throat hurts from the breathing tube that they used, my neck is sore where they did the actual surgery, and my muscles are sore all around the surgical site. I feel like I need a massage but I'm sure that's probably not the greatest idea. I'd probably end up feeling worse than I already do. The bad thing is that my doc didn't send home any good pain meds so I'm stuck with tylenol!

I should get the results of the pathology tomorrow. They'll look at my whole thyroid and all of the lymph nodes that they removed. My surgeon did mention that the cancer looked pretty nasty - she said something about tall cell papillary carcinoma which is a more aggressive type of papillary carcinoma. This means that there is a greater risk that the cancer has spread to my lymph nodes. The positive thing is that they will treat any remaining cancer the same way, no matter if it has spread. I'll receive the radioactive iodine in either case. The pathology will determine the amount of the dose of iodine that I receive.

My appetite seems to be fine, that's a bit of a disappointment as I was hoping I might lose a few pounds during all of this!

The story of the week is really Alexander's bed at my parents' house. Right after we left on Sunday, my dad heard Alexander making quite a fuss (he had just gone down for a nap). Turns out that the crib had come apart in one of the corners. Alexander told my dad that the bed was bad!! Luckily, they haven't had any trouble putting him back to bed after the incident. They fixed the problem and he's been sleeping like a champ ever since.

Well, it's off to la-la land for me. I'm getting worn out and have run out of things to say!! More tomorrow!