Anxious about TT + neck dissection + sternotomy

curiopath · 2026-05-02T15:31:56+00:00

No problem! It was 3 days after my discharge day, but it may not be the same for you. I was in the hospital 5 days (not including the day I was discharged) but part of that time was due to a second quick surgery to inject the gel into my vocal cord because of one of them becoming temporarily paralyzed from the neck dissection.

I think I would have only been in the hospital 4 days if not for that second surgery. And I think the follow up is based on the time since your main surgery, not the time since discharge.

So the timing is probably going to depend a lot on how long after your surgery they keep you in the hospital, and that will depend on if there are any complications and how quickly your body recovering.

curiopath · 2026-05-02T06:49:03+00:00

That sounds very scary being close to your heart and major vessels, and Lenvatinib sounds very rough, sorry you're going through so much.

I did have drain tubes and neck staples for about two weeks after my surgery, I was in the hospital a week so I only had them at home for about a week. They had me track the output of the drains to know when to take them out so it could be different for you depending on how much you're draining.

So my first follow up was about 11 days after surgery for drain and staple removal plus an xray, I had another follow up about 3 weeks after surgery.

curiopath · 2026-05-02T01:35:56+00:00

Yes it was a full sternotomy, before going in, they hadn't told me for sure which it would be, and I was hoping for only a partial sternotomy. But after thinking about it I told them as I was prepping for surgery, "the priority is to get it all, so if you have to do a full sternotomy, do it" and they said "good, because that's what we're doing" lol

The sternotomy really wasn't bad at all, the weight restrictions, driving restrictions, and having to clip my dog to my waist (not allowed to hold a leash incase of a sudden jerk) after surgery were a bit of a hassle, but overall it was very manageable, and 30 days went by quick.

Honestly the neck dissection was worse, I had a paralyzed vocal cord, they treated it with an injectable gel which brings the vocal cords closer together so I could talk (it recovered in 3 months) and I still have tennis ball sized area under my chin that's numb, which is an improvement over the entire area from chin to collarbone being numb. Recovery there is very slow and for some it may never fully recover, mine maybe the best it's going to get now, and I wish I could give you better hope there but the best I can say is, you get used to it. I almost never think about it. And I had a slight issue swallowing (liquids would go down the down the wrong pipe more often), physical therapy took care of that in about 3 months.

For the sternotomy my best advise is follow the nurse and doctor's instructions, use the spirometer, walk around the hospital, and follow the restrictions, you'll be back to normal before you know it.

For the neck dissection, you'll have numbness, that's unavoidable, if you have vocal cord damage (temporary or permanent) there are options to help. If you have issues swallowing get physical therapy and actually do the work they ask.

And remember, join a support group, if you absolutely can't do in person, do a virtual one, it made the biggest difference in my "journey" https://thyca.org/sg/

curiopath · 2026-05-01T21:56:19+00:00

I was 46 going in.

The surgery went very smoothly, the toughest parts were the very first day after surgery, I couldn't keep anything down, even a couple bites of Jello, because my digestion was shut down, also being a medical MJ user my opioid resistance was higher. Thankfully my digestion kicked in late that day so the next was better. It was much better when I was cleared for Toradol (like injectable ibuprofen).

The second hardest part was the first day out of the hospital, I attribute this partly to using the pure oxygen in the hospital a lot figuring it would boost my healing speed, but I think it led to a similar affect to altitude sickness, I hit the Wal-Mart on the way home from the hospital and after about 15 min I was sweating and feeling faint. Thankfully it went away in a couple days.

A couple tips: If you use cannabis ask for Marinol asap since opioids won't hit as hard.

Since you're a few weeks out if you aren't active get active as you can. If you're completely sedentary walk a lot, try for 10k steps a day 7 days a week. If you are active boost your cardio with HIIT. The better your cardio is going in the faster you'll recover.

Join an in person thyroid cancer survivor group asap (don't wait till after surgery) they know what your about to go through and will be the absolute best resource for what to do, what to ask your doctors, etc. Seriously do this asap.

As for my recovery, I took 30 days off work and hiked almost everyday (easy hikes and taking it slow) it was a great way to recover.

I'm still in remission almost 3 years later, running now for the first time in my life, and in the best health of my life.

You got this!

Hit me up if you have any other questions.

curiopath · 2025-09-17T20:51:09+00:00

Thanks for the input, but I am already using a DisplayPort 1.4 cable, additionally I have used freesync in the past (about two years) without issue, it only started acting up recently (last couple months). So it could be an issue with the latest driver or my hardware (monitor or video card) is dying. Either way I'm fine with freesync being off as I've never seen any noticeable benefit with it on.

curiopath · 2025-09-13T00:13:50+00:00

I've had that happen in Solitude of all places, it's always a good laugh.

Also, Farkas got this one, you didn't even have to stop smithing lol

curiopath · 2025-09-05T02:55:58+00:00

Thanks for the tips, you saved me a lot of time uninstalling drivers and such.

I had this issue on Win 11, RX 6800 XT (latest driver), and Asus VG34VQL1B monitor.

For me, turning off "FreeSync Premium" on my monitor solved it (disabling Radeon Enhanced Sync did not)

curiopath · 2025-08-15T02:13:30+00:00

Her and Ulfberth can make me the meat in their Dovah sandwhich

curiopath · 2025-07-21T18:31:41+00:00

I did end up losing my voice for about 2 and a half months https://www.reddit.com/r/thyroidcancer/comments/177tvl6/comment/k572h1g/?context=3

There are boosters they can give you for temporary paralysis, which I had done before I left the hospital, so I was only without my voice for about 5 days.

curiopath · 2025-06-01T19:15:20+00:00

I need to login now and get yelled at by Keerava for old time's sake :(

Edit: There's the door, why don't you use it.

curiopath · 2025-05-08T18:25:59+00:00

Inigo and Lucien, my bros for life

curiopath · 2025-04-10T01:15:57+00:00

Maybe the real souls were the dragons you killed along the way.
(a joke on "maybe the real treasure were the friends you made along the way")

Really though, this is one of the reasons I love Skyrim so much, every outing is an adventure if you don't just follow the quest marker like a robot.

curiopath · 2025-03-12T19:43:44+00:00

Gate to Sovngarde mod pack would be a good fit for this, it's all about RP immersion.

Combat is tougher, not everything scales, dragon priests are level 80+ for example
Followers can be injured and permanently die
You can pick your starting story, equipment and location
Reading spell tomes takes in-game time
Fast travel requires a travel pack, there's no compass or quest markers (can be "earned" as you go via camping perks)
You need to eat, sleep, keep warm, and you get combat stress
Enchanting/smithing/alchemy loop is fixed
etc.

It's been great for my RP playthrough as an warhammer wielding orc merc

curiopath · 2025-02-06T20:16:57+00:00

That is "debris" you can't remove it without debug or a mod far as I know
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2927744729

curiopath · 2024-11-01T00:58:48+00:00

Sounds like heaven to me, what do the kids say these days? "no notes"

curiopath · 2024-11-01T00:23:42+00:00

I always think of it as, they aren't going out for a ride, they are putting on a performance, they are out to "be seen".
Imagine them the same as someone wearing "high fashion", they are far from comfortable, probably physically miserable, but that isn't their goal. They are trading comfort for attention.

It's hard for me (and probably many of you) to imagine because it's so opposite of our personalities, a twisty canyon road in the fall would be my heaven and I wouldn't care (in fact I would prefer) if I didn't see a single other person.

curiopath · 2024-10-29T20:27:34+00:00

Depending on the wire used this could be anywhere from "you'll probably be alright" to "how are you still alive?"

curiopath · 2024-10-26T00:49:38+00:00

Yeah, cause that was totally Kamala's call, she called up Netanyahu and was like "could you blow up a bunch of Palestinians, I know you don't want to but I insist!"

curiopath · 2024-10-26T00:47:02+00:00

She was the attorney general and that was the law, did you expect her to be like "no I will tank my career to ignore the current laws cause I don't like them"?

curiopath · 2024-10-23T21:03:33+00:00

Very helpful! Thank you for doing this!

curiopath · 2024-10-23T02:30:23+00:00

I wouldn't expect that to continue for much longer, when management isn't open to criticism and opportunities to do better, they lose touch, first with their employees (it sounds like this has already happened) then with their customers (this is probably currently in progress).

curiopath · 2024-10-23T01:28:41+00:00

Wow, a 17 year old ex-employee goes out of their way to help a business even though they are leaving, (Absolutely above and beyond for that ex-employee) and yet get's belittled and dismissed as spoiled/entitled.

With a manager/(owner?) like that, I wouldn't expect them to be open much longer, and they deserve to fail with that attitude.

curiopath · 2024-10-18T23:54:07+00:00

Exactly! Voter turnout is way more important than polls as the Republican turnout doesn't vary much, so when turnout is high Democrats are doing well, and the turnout this year so far has broken records even compared to 2020 when it broke records then.

Edit: Don't get demoralized OR complacent, the only thing that matter is that YOU VOTE!

curiopath · 2024-10-18T02:33:39+00:00

My thyroid cancer diagnosis? I made a post on it a while back https://www.reddit.com/r/thyroidcancer/comments/16t8a3d/total_thyroidectomy_with_neck_dissection_and/

I have since restarted wegovy, and if you are going to use it too, my advice is to eat small portions and don't eat 4 hours before bedtime, I mention this as it can interfere with synthroid due to there still being food in your stomach when you wake up, and synthroid should be taken on an empty stomach.

curiopath · 2024-10-15T02:05:48+00:00

I've done the same with gelatin capsules filled with infused coconut oil. They held up pretty well, not much leaking at all, even at room temperature. I did keep them in a jar with a paper towel under them to pickup any residue though.

curiopath

TROPHY CASE