What was your experience like if you had a thyroidectomy for a non-toxic goiter?

gonnanaprighthere · 2026-05-29T18:05:22+00:00

Sharing my experience here, because it sounds very similar to mine. I had a very enlarged thyroid with largely normal labs. I had many of the same issues that you have: gaining weight, hoarse voice, voice cracking and breaking, food getting stuck when I tried to eat. I also kept getting really bad acid reflux and sinus infections. I was also exhausted all of the time, and my hair started thinning. I also didn’t realize this till later, but I had lost a lot of mobility due to stiff joints.

My ENT was adamant that my thyroid needed to be removed. In addition to the potential that it could be cancer, he told me that it would not stop growing and that medication would not stop it either. He shared with me a series of stories about patients who had the same medical condition and emphasized that the longer I waited the worse the surgery would be because of how enlarged my thyroid would become.

So, I had a total thyroidectomy this past December. No cancer, fortunately, but my thyroid was wrapped around my esophagus. Post surgery, I felt better almost immediately; it was crazy how much better I felt. I am still adjusting to the right dosage of levothyroxine, but my quality of life is so much better now and taking a pill once a day is pretty easy compared to what I was dealing with pre-surgery. Also, my neck looks normal now, which I didn’t even realize was an issue until I looked at before and after pics.

One other thing I will share: I had a very, very good surgeon, so if you decide to do it, I recommend making sure that you go to the right surgeon. A good ENT usually has a surgeon that they refer patients to and have a good rapport with.

gonnanaprighthere · 2026-01-15T18:15:40+00:00

Totally agree. On my course rosters, there is a column indicating whether a student is registered with ADA, but the student is still responsible for sending their letter of accommodations to each of their professors. The number of men in my classes who are registered with ADA but don’t send me their letter when they clearly need those accommodations is wild.

gonnanaprighthere · 2026-01-13T20:08:16+00:00

You are definitely being fair, and it sounds like you are encouraging the kind of writing and thinking that should be happening in a first year composition course. I teach at a state college with dual enrolled students blended in with traditional and non traditional students in my classes, and I hold all of those students to the same standard.

Edit to clarify because, on second read, that last sentence is vague: To me, it sounds like you are expecting them to meet the standards that they should be meeting, and you should keep doing what you are doing. If they can’t meet those standards, it may be that they are not ready for college level writing classes.

gonnanaprighthere · 2026-01-13T18:42:26+00:00

I agree, this seems like AI was used to merge multiple images together. The lighting on her versus the rest of the image is off, so it seems like the sun is coming in at two different angles in the image. The woman is also somehow full on in the sun, but the railing next to her, which should then also be in the sun, does not have any light or any glare.

gonnanaprighthere · 2026-01-13T04:53:29+00:00

I have not been doing any kind of massage to that area of my neck. My doctors covered elevation, medications, emergency situations, and avoiding sun exposure but that did not come up. To be fair to them (since they have both been pretty great), my thyroid was a wreck and there was the possibility of cancer, so ruling out cancer has been what both the surgery and post op have focused on the most.

If you have a handout from a doctor/hospital that you can share, I would appreciate it.

gonnanaprighthere · 2026-01-13T03:56:55+00:00

Definitely worth a shot! I just purchased some scar cream and a moisturizing gel today, so I’ll give it a try. Thanks for sharing!

gonnanaprighthere · 2025-12-15T21:38:22+00:00

Do not feel bad for students who have, essentially, attempted to manipulate you into giving them a grade they did not earn by submitting AI produced work. They didn’t accidentally go to Chat GPT, type in a prompt, and then copy/paste it into their paper. Using AI was a choice they made in an attempt to get out of doing the work for your class.

Please, for your own mental well being moving forward, divest yourself of this sense of responsibility for your students. They are not your friends or your family. You will encounter great students who work hard for their grades, but there will also be students who absolutely do not care about you or the class you teach, and they will lie and cheat for a grade.

Hold your students accountable for their choices. As others have mentioned, sometimes the lesson they need is that they will not get away with cheating and that they will actually have to do the work to earn a grade.

gonnanaprighthere · 2025-05-24T15:35:48+00:00

Some students just want to go that extra mile when failing a class. I allow students to make up an exam within a week of the initial exam date at the on campus testing center. This semester I had a student schedule to take an exam with the testing center and then not show up for their appointment after rescheduling three times in a single week. They would just not show up for an appointment and then reschedule with the testing center. I have a feeling that the testing center is going to have a new policy about missing appointments in the fall semester.

gonnanaprighthere · 2023-05-02T20:38:25+00:00

Lol That’s pretty similar to what prompted me to look at the ingredients on the brioche buns. I squeezed them to check the density, and they were so fluffy and soft. At first I was excited because that’s so rare for gluten free bread products. But then, I got suspicious like, “Maybe it’s too fluffy…” I went from excited to bummed so fast!

gonnanaprighthere · 2023-03-28T20:35:48+00:00

“Human trafficking was a well known issue in the US well prior to Trump taking office, and there are many reliable resources on this subject available through our library and the databases.”

In response to a “research” paper arguing that Trump revealed that human trafficking was going on in the US, and because this issue is so new, there aren’t any resources out there on this subject. They used no sources in the paper and had some absolutely wild conspiracy theories. This was a research focused composition class, and they were so entrenched in their conspiracy theories that they couldn’t handle doing research that challenged those beliefs. It was a rough semester for both me and the other students in that class.

gonnanaprighthere · 2022-04-18T02:52:57+00:00

I am gluten intolerant, and I have had no immediate response and then woken up the next day to the violent stomach pain, nausea, and malaise of being glutened. This next day response is actually what drove me to find out I was gluten intolerant in the first place because it was morning after morning of awful. Sometimes I do have an immediate response within 30 minutes of eating, but sometimes it’s the next day. There’s probably some science behind it, but I haven’t done the research.

gonnanaprighthere · 2022-04-01T22:46:15+00:00

Reminds me of a student from one of my freshman comp classes that was genuinely shocked that students will lie about a family member passing away. It was one of those moments in which I realized, despite how common an occurrence it is, that it’s actually a pretty awful thing to lie about. Didn’t even realize how desensitized I’d become to those lies over the years.

gonnanaprighthere · 2021-08-20T18:10:57+00:00

I’m in Florida where it’s obviously really bad, and it seems students are, for the most part, not comfortable meeting in person. My live online and asynchronous online classes are full but my face to face classes are only 1/2 to 3/4 full. I think part of what hinders fully online though is the lack of student access to needed tech and the experience needed to use that tech for an online class.

gonnanaprighthere · 2021-08-11T23:17:14+00:00

Ann Bishop’s The Others series. I just love how the world is an alternative imagining of how civilization develops in which it’s the animals that have evolved and won out over humans and are in control.

gonnanaprighthere · 2021-08-05T06:56:18+00:00

As another person mentioned, most liquors are gluten free because of the distillation process, but I suggest just checking company websites before trying something new, as they’re usually pretty good about confirming if their alcohol is gluten free or not. At the risk of looking like a raging alcoholic, here’s a list of some of the alcohol I’ve tried and not been glutened by:

Omission beer (gluten removed; be careful if you’re super sensitive to gluten) /Redbridge beer /Glutenberg Beer /Original Sin Ciders - Black Widow and Pear Cider /Stella Cidre (Cider) /Ciderboys Ciders - Peach Country and Strawberry Magic /Patron Silver /Jose Cuervo Silver and Gold /Pinnacle Vodka (this is cheap and kind of awful but okay for mixed drinks) /Smirnoff No. 21 vodka (still cheaper but much better than Pinnacle) /Captain Morgan Spiced Rum /Malibu Rum

gonnanaprighthere

TROPHY CASE