What to expect after surgery to remove the thyroid?

Many people gain weight for sure, but there are some who lose weight too, some neither so the answer might be all over. Often times the challenge is getting the thyroid hormones just right with doctors often checking Free T3 (FT3) and Free t4 (FT4) to be sure the actual thyroid hormone values are more optimal for you (TSH is not a thyroid hormone is important to understand, but is kept suppressed usually). As too high a Free t4 (above low moderate), or too low a Free t3 (best if it is upper area of range) are common problems, especially with doctors that don't do the full testing of FT3 and FT4 and/or use T4 only as replacement hormone. They will be checking Thyroglobulin (Tg) as a cancer marker. Many are able to continue on with all aspects of career and family, but some need to step back a bit from intense career work since even with the best docs we get days where the thyroid hormones didn't work right that day. But over time you learn what works and not with thyroid hormone replacement so hopefully you will do better or do fine right away. Hope the surgery goes well.

Thank you for explaining the process.