BigDaddyKong
Active Member
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2022
- Messages
- 79
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2023 was not my best year. I had an issue with my thyroid becoming too enlarged. It had wrapped itself around my trachea, and esophagus and shoved them off to one side. It even had my carotid arteries in my neck dislodged and moved out of place. This left me very sick this entire summer. I had really bad headaches, vision loss, and uncontrolled tire spells. I was put on steroids for almost 7 months due to the arteries in my temple. This delayed getting surgery to take out my thyroid.
As you can see from this photo from about a week before the surgery, how my neck was bulged out. The other side was tougher because the thyroid had went down behind my sternum and was in my aorta area. Back in August, my little 19 year chihuahua had to be put to sleep. I found this little guy a week before my surgery.
The surgery was going to be huge. They estimated it would take 12 hours to get it done, if they did not have to do half now and do a second surgery for the other half. It all deepened on if I got vocal cord paralysis, which is common in this type of surgery.
When the day came, I was on the OR table for 14 hours. This is what they took out.
It weighed in at almost 3 pounds according to the pathology report. The great news is there was no cancer. There was a little bit of time after they closed me up, my blood pressure crashed after they gave me some medicine to bring it down after it started going up. I went into preop at 6:30AM that morning, and did not get back to SICU until 11:45 that night. They put me on the OR table at 6:50 that morning, and did not get me closed until about 8 that night.
I was cut ear to ear.
The amazing part was my surgery was on Thursday, and I was discharged Saturday morning by 11AM. No one expected the surgery to go that good. The only issues I had was I got a nasty sore on my tongue from the ET tube, and a bit of a muscle sore on my hip from being on the table so long. The really crazy part is after such a big surgery, I came out looking 15 years younger.
I have a chin, and dimples when I smile now. The wife can't get over it. The worst part now is the boredom. There is only so much TV and YouTube a person can watch. People can't put content out fast enough when you sit here all day watching it. I am so excited to go back to work next week. Forums are almost dead now for some groups because of FB.
They thought I was being too optimistic when I told them I planned on being back to work 3 weeks after my surgery. I guess I get to show them.
2023 left me so sick, I was not able to ride, or even get most of my lawn work done. I honestly felt like I was going to die a few times. 2024 is going to be so much better for me. It's been so warm the last couple days, I had to take the new puppy on a tractor ride to put up some trash cans for an elderly family member. That felt so good. I do get a kick out of telling people I was 3/4's of the way surgically decapitated and was still home in two days. I am one bad man hahahaha.
I hope everyone had a great holiday, and an even better new year. Sorry for the ramble, I am just bored and killing time.
As you can see from this photo from about a week before the surgery, how my neck was bulged out. The other side was tougher because the thyroid had went down behind my sternum and was in my aorta area. Back in August, my little 19 year chihuahua had to be put to sleep. I found this little guy a week before my surgery.
The surgery was going to be huge. They estimated it would take 12 hours to get it done, if they did not have to do half now and do a second surgery for the other half. It all deepened on if I got vocal cord paralysis, which is common in this type of surgery.
When the day came, I was on the OR table for 14 hours. This is what they took out.
It weighed in at almost 3 pounds according to the pathology report. The great news is there was no cancer. There was a little bit of time after they closed me up, my blood pressure crashed after they gave me some medicine to bring it down after it started going up. I went into preop at 6:30AM that morning, and did not get back to SICU until 11:45 that night. They put me on the OR table at 6:50 that morning, and did not get me closed until about 8 that night.
I was cut ear to ear.
The amazing part was my surgery was on Thursday, and I was discharged Saturday morning by 11AM. No one expected the surgery to go that good. The only issues I had was I got a nasty sore on my tongue from the ET tube, and a bit of a muscle sore on my hip from being on the table so long. The really crazy part is after such a big surgery, I came out looking 15 years younger.
I have a chin, and dimples when I smile now. The wife can't get over it. The worst part now is the boredom. There is only so much TV and YouTube a person can watch. People can't put content out fast enough when you sit here all day watching it. I am so excited to go back to work next week. Forums are almost dead now for some groups because of FB.
They thought I was being too optimistic when I told them I planned on being back to work 3 weeks after my surgery. I guess I get to show them.
2023 left me so sick, I was not able to ride, or even get most of my lawn work done. I honestly felt like I was going to die a few times. 2024 is going to be so much better for me. It's been so warm the last couple days, I had to take the new puppy on a tractor ride to put up some trash cans for an elderly family member. That felt so good. I do get a kick out of telling people I was 3/4's of the way surgically decapitated and was still home in two days. I am one bad man hahahaha.
I hope everyone had a great holiday, and an even better new year. Sorry for the ramble, I am just bored and killing time.
