Advice on Meds Before and After Surgery - Thyroid UK

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Advice on Meds Before and After Surgery

Milkmaid123 profile image
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Hi everyone. After almost 3 years of thyroid ups and downs - I was fluctuating between hyper and hypo almost daily! I am at last starting to feel somewhere near ‘normal’.

I am on block and replace of 40mg Carbimazole and 100mcg Levothyroxine (changed from 75mcg 4 weeks ago) daily. I am also on 4000 units Fultium D3 and 5g Calcium Carbonate daily too and 2.5mg Bisoprolol.

I take the Levo at 4.30am, when I get up. 20mg Carb and Bisoprolol an hour later and Vit D and 2.5 Calcium 3 hours after that. The other Carb and Calcium at 8 in the evening.

This all seems to be working for me at the moment.

My question is that I am due to go into hospital on Friday for a 6 hour operation on my foot/ankle. So nil by mouth from the evening before. I have to get there for 7.30an, not sure what time the op is though.

I’m really dreading changing the times of my meds as it seems to have taken such a long time to get to the point of not feeling rubbish all the time!

Does anyone have any advice about when would be best to take my thyroid meds.....or indeed whether changing things for one day will alter how I’m feeling at all?

Thank you so much.

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humanbean profile image
humanbean

You might want to investigate which supplements and drugs ought to be stopped before surgery, because some of them thin the blood and can increase the risk of bleeding. I had surgery recently and gave up fish oil, vitamin D and garlic long before it took place.

I take bisoprolol occasionally. I carried on taking it as necessary (for tachycardia), but I made sure the anaesthetist was aware before the surgery. It wasn't an issue, but I'm glad I told him.

As for your levo, I suspect you can take that pretty much as normal - I was allowed to take essential meds before surgery, with a small glass of water - just enough to help me swallow them.

I'm afraid I can't comment on carbimazole, I have no experience of it, but you might find this paper very useful - I think it tells you everything you need to know about your thyroid meds and non-thyroid surgery.

academic.oup.com/bja/articl...

Good luck!

Milkmaid123 profile image
Milkmaid123 in reply to humanbean

Thank you so much humanbean.

I called my Endocrinologist today to ask his advice and I’m waiting for him to get back to me.

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