One week on

After one week the pain is starting to change. It feels less like someone is pressing into my throat, but more like every time I move, the wound is trying to come apart. This is a really gross feeling and quite disturbing at times. I am not too sure how much of it is psychological either. I have a bit of a rash where the tape came off, but at least it is clean now. The area around my jaw is still very numb and this is still the most painful part as well. Things like yawning and sneezing are quite painful. I am getting tired a lot and the GP said this may be due to the calcium levels still adjusting themselves, although I think it could also be down to the fact that I have to concentrate to keep my head still and this just makes everything a bit more difficult. Still, every day does get a bit easier, and I am looking forward to feeling completely normal again. It is still hard that I felt fine before this operation, so at the moment I feel worse than I did before, but then this was never about the immediate future, it was always about preventing the long term side effects.

Day 5 - Removing the tape

So, day 5 arrived. The day to remove the surgical tape. To say I was a little apprehensive would be quite an understatement. I was also a little excited in a very weird way, as this would be my first opportunity to have a proper look at my scar. I was really unsure of how to remove the tape, I had asked a nurse when I had been for a blood test, but she had no advice and just wished me luck. You can see from the last 2 pictures just how tight that tape was, I had showered a few times and it wasn't even starting to give.

Eventually, I plucked up the courage and made a start. To say it was painful would be my second understatement. It was incredibly painful and made me feel really, really sick. In total it must have taken me about an hour of pulling at it a bit, leaving it a bit and then coming back to it again, but eventually it came off. At this point I was just so happy to have it over and done with that I couldn't face cleaning the sticky bits off.

It felt very strange with the tape off, mainly because it felt like the tape was still on. I had wrongly assumed that the tightness was due to the tape being stretched against the swelling, but it actually still felt like that after the tape had been removed, which was weird. The good news was that the scar looked smaller without the tape on it and it was incredibly neat, so I am quite hopeful that it will fade and become almost invisible in a few months time.

48 hours later

48 hours later and this is how my scar was looking. By now it was beginning to swell up and really starting to pull against the clear tape that was covering it. It felt very tight and uncomfortable, like someone was pressing their fingers into the centre of your throat all the time, I have always hated anything tight against my neck, so this feeling was particularly unpleasant. I also had very restricted head and neck movement and this just made everything difficult. You really don't realise how much you move your head around until you can't.

On a more positive note though, the pain was starting to ease and, although I felt incredibly tired, I was starting to get back to normal, albeit very slowly. So, if I felt like this after 48 hours, then it was a positive outlook for the next few days. I still had day 5 to face, and as the tape continued to get tighter, the thought of removing it felt less and less appealing. Still, the hospital would not have left me to take it off on my own if it was going to be that difficult - would they?

The surgery

So the day I had been dreading finally arrived (23rd Oct 09) and all the tension, fear and anxiety came flooding to the surface. It took every ounce of energy I had to fight back the tears. It all seems so silly now that it is over and done with, but I really was scared. I must say that all the staff at the hospital were fantastic, they could obviously see how worried I was and they were all so calm and reassuring. My surgeon and the anaesthetist were particularly brilliant and I did feel like I was in good hands. The surgery was done in a couple of hours and they removed 1 gland, which was tucked away at the back, so my scar is a tiny bit bigger. When I woke up my throat was really sore, but I think that was mainly due to the tube down my throat while I was under. The pain from the cut wasn't too bad - although that was probably due to the morphine - and I generally felt a lot more alert than I had expected to. Within 24 hrs my calcium levels were back to normal and I was home. That was amazing after such a long build up. This picture was taken when I first got home, 24 hrs after the operation. The clear tape has to be removed after 5 days - not looking forward to that!

The diagnosis

I have lost count of how many times people have told me how lucky I am over the past few months. I cerainly didn't feel very lucky when I knew I was facing surgery where they were going to cut across my throat. Still, the truth is I have been incredibly lucky to have had this picked up. I have been asked a lot about my symptoms and how this was discovered, but the truth is I had none at all and this was discovered almost completely by accident. My GP decided to do some blood tests because I had been feeling depressed - but then my dad had just died, so it wasn't really any surprise - and they showed an elevated calcium level. At first the GP didn't seem to think it was anything, but I had a 2nd blood test done and then a 3rd. Then they asked for a 24 hour urine sample - which was fun - followed by yet more blood tests. At this point I was starting to wonder a little at what was going on. This was the point at which I was referred to the specialist at the hospital and the word surgery was frist mentioned. Apparently, a normal clacium level is between 0 - 2.6 and mine was at 16.3, but all the time I kept expecting someone to say they had made a mistake, it has gone back to normal, take a tablet and it will be fine. Within 3 months, however, I had seen the surgeon and booked a date - this really was the point of no return.

Why start this blog?

72 hours ago I had a parathyroidectomy. The build up to this operation has been emotional to say the least, so I thought I would write this blog as a record of my experience from start to finish. I am hoping it will do two things. Firstly, to serve as a record for myself, just to help remember everything more clearly and help to organise my thoughts. Secondly, as a help to anyone who may have experienced the same thing, or something similar - I know that reading about the experiences of others helped me when I was looking into this procedure.