Papillary Thyroid Cancer: A Year Later

Over a year ago, I was diagnosed with Papillary Thyroid Cancer. Looking back at my blog posts from that time, I can confirm that getting my slender neck back was the only “Pro” of having thyroid cancer.

I’m coming up on the one year anniversary of my thyroidectomy.

The past year has been interesting. Some thyroid related stuff, for anyone researching what life is like after a thyroidectomy:

  • Be very cautious of changing your thyroid meds, even in the slightest. I was destroying 25mcg of cytomel via my pill splitter, so the doctor had me switch from 12.5 mcg of cytomel to 15mcg (3 x 5mcg pills) a day. Well, I was thinking ‘YEAH! More cytomel = more energy and maybe weight loss!’. Oh ho. Oh no. no no. Instead, apparently I had an “paradoxical reaction” (doctor’s quote) and became extremely sloggy and tired and sad. #pill-splitter-fail
  • Tired. So Tired. But am I tired because of the thyroidectomy? Am I tired because of depression? I have no idea. It’s so confusing.
  • Depression. Am I depressed due to situational stuff going on in my life? Am I depressed because I always had depression? Is it because of med dosage? No idea.
  • Voice change. My voice HAS changed. Very slightly but it has a weird gravelly sound to it. I was filmed for a work-related interview and my voice sounded TERRIBLE. I CRINGED. Listen, if you dare. I’m only in it for a little bit, heavily edited out, probably because of my tragic voice. I used to do a lot of public speaking, too, so I need to start working on getting my voice back to sounding decent.
  • The scar. The scar is pretty faded and you have to look for it to see it. Sometimes it still really hurts, like a throbbing pain in the front of my neck. The pain definitely goes away after the first few months but pops up every now and again. No idea what triggers it. The doctor said that it can take up to a year for the pain to go away, because your body is filling in the gap with scar tissue/etc.

OK SO I don’t really have any ANSWERS. Just vague questions. Life is a bit adrift, but that is more of a big picture thing. No good way to conclude this so….. have a great weekend! 🙂

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