My wife, who just had her thyroid out Thursday (papillary carcinoma--apparently very well contained microcarcinoma, fortunately), is about to be an interesting guinea pig.

She's been put on 100mcg/day of Synthroid, which I am making sure she takes far apart from everything else, including the large calcium dose she's now on for parthyroid shock (she did start to get hypocalcemic symptoms about 8 hours after surgery, but we had expected them and they were forestalled quickly with intravenous dosing). I suspect, though, that this will prove inadequate--my wife has an extremely frugal metabolic system, and did even before thyroid troubles were diagnosed, due to her decades as an ultramarathon runner. Her body is quite used to maintaining muscle on a 70 mile a week schedule--she's not doing that now, of course (she's been told no running for a week), but her surgeon is well aware that she'll want to start again ASAP. Moreover, for thyroid cancer patients, the aim is to drive TSH down quite low--into the .3-.5 range--as a tumor growth suppresant (at least until one needs to be made hypothyroid for radioiodine scan, tosee if any vestiges of tumor remain). I imagine she's going to put on some weight during the convalescent period, though I think fears of bone density reduction will be lessened by her calcium/Vitamin D intake and by the bone density built up through thirty years of weight bearing exercise (the x-ray people are always impressed by her bone thickness).

Since she needs to be titred up regularly anyway for thyroglobulin and TSH levels, we'll see how this all goes, and how it correlates with mental sharpness, exercise level, weight, fatigue levels, and dietary change.