Spot is a little bigger

Eek, it’s been awhile since I posted, so let’s catch up. 🙂

About three years later, the scar is faint…surprisingly, as I never took the best care of it. So for those who have busy lives, your scarring may be similar to mine. As a mom, you take care of everyone else and not really yourself.

The thyroid surgery scar is quite faint, nearly three years later.

Twice a year I’ve had my blood drawn and ultrasounds on my neck done to make sure that the thyroid cancer is indeed gone. Well, one spot that’s left over from that surgery hasn’t really gone away. It shrank for a bit, but now it may be growing again. I’m hoping it was because I had a bad cold during that ultrasound, and that area was just effected by that. So the doctor rescheduled me for new blood work and a new ultrasound for later this month.

I had told my doctor to just go in and remove it, but she said that it’s too small yet. I had also asked if the surgeon could just go through the side of my neck instead of re-opening the scar, but she said they can’t do that as other important body parts are in the way. (I can’t remember what exactly she said, but that’s pretty much it).

Now because my hands were a little shaky still and I wasn’t sleeping well, the doctor lowered by dose of levothyroxine. It took a few weeks to a month, but I started sleeping better after that. I appreciated no more hand shakiness since I shoot hand-held video cameras from time to time.

How long does it take for the thyroid cancer surgery scar to disappear?

Thyroid cancer surgery scar after nearly two years
Thyroid cancer surgery scar after nearly two years

One of the questions people ask before and after having their cancerous thyroids removed is when will that thick red ugly scar go away. I guess it depends on how healthy you are, if you cover the area with fabric and/or sun screen, and how healthy you eat. Well, I kinda fail at all of that.

I had surgery to remove my thyroid cancer back in March 2016. Someone told me to pinch and rub the scar between my thumb and finger to loosen the fibers to prevent scarring. I think that I tried that, but it felt very weird and painful. I didn’t really worry too much about covering it, and I might have put sun screen on a handful of times. My scar is still present today, although it had faded much. (See photo). This scar fading took  nearly two years. I’ll guess that by the end of 2018, the scar should be even lighter in color or perhaps faded into a white line. (I have other surgery scars that are several years old that are a fine white line).

Hopefully this helps with your fear of scarring?