How long is recovery after a total thyroidectomy and right hand side node dissection?
I’m sorry for your diagnosis, but hopefully I can provide you some insight and reassurance. I had a total thyroidectomy with a modified radical, bilateral, central neck dissection (11 lymph nodes out) July 29th ’08 for papillary thyroid cancer. Neck dissection usually involves a little bit more healing time since they are pulling the muscles to get to the nodes. I felt like/ looked like Frankenstein since I had to rotate my whole torso to look to the right or left. I’d guess you’ll have radioactive iodine (I-131) as the follow up treatment, since they know it spread to the lymph nodes (is this correct?). Your doctor might start you on Synthroid (or equivalent) right away and give you Thyrogen injections, or they might make you go hypo by not having a thyroid nor meds. This can make you feel tired, among other things, but you shouldn’t feel it 10 days after your TT. The pain wasn’t too bad, but the hypersensitivity of my scar was annoying. My surgeon uses Dermabond (surgical glue), so t
