Madam Lui’s sharing
Madam Lui has had three thyroidectomy operations spaced out within twenty years. She received the latest "micro-incision thyroidectomy" surgery last year. She experienced first-hand, how advanced thyroidectomy surgery can aid patienrts, such as the greatly reduced scar area, shorter recovery time and speedy recovery of speech and eating abilities after the surgery.
In as early as Madam Lui’s adolescence at 16 years-old, she already felt swelling around her neck area. Two years later, the swelling became more significant. Lui did not know what caused the swelling and was told by her doctor that it was a thyroid tumor. She then received her first thyroidectomy.
A decade later, married and a mother of two children, Madam Lui sought medical attention after she noticed that swelling occurred again in her neck. Again, she was diagnosed as having thyroid tumor and another surgery was needed to remove it.
After both surgeries, Madam Lui said, "Each time, it took more than a month to recover and it was painful. After my second operation, I required to carry a drainage tube and that made me throw up all the time. I needed follow up consultations at the hospital every day, it was tough." That was why Madam Lui became hesitate to accept further surgery when she again discovered symptoms of thyroid tumor about two years ago.
This time, the thyroid tumor reached up to 5 or 6 centimeters and was growing near the chest area. "I was worried that my ability to recover would be worse than when I was younger, I feared it would take much longer for me to recover," Lui said.
To much of Madam Lui’s surprise, with the use of mini-incision approach, the various disadvantages and discomfort of traditional thyroidectomy can be vastly improved.
"After the micro-incision thyroidectomy, I was able to eat and drink the next morning. The surgical wound was also smaller than previous ones. I was ready to go home a day after the operation," Lui recalled. She added that as the surgical wound was smaller, drainage was not necessary. Speech was unaffected. Overall, Lui said discomfort from micro-incision thyroidectomy was minimal.
"Some friends called me a few days after my surgery, hoping to visit me at hospital. They all thought they misheard me when I told them I had already checked out of hospital!" Madam Lui joked, that the skin on her neck is still smooth even after the surgery, "Only scars from my first two operations are noticeable, I thought my condition would be worse in the final surgery because of my age yet results showed the complete opposite!".
