Quote:
Originally Posted by pelztier86
Hello guys,
First of all I am sorry as I write here and I do not have MG. I am 25 years old, and I have mutliple disabling/severe conditions.
Recently, a thymic mass was discovered and surgery is recoemmended due to the unknwon nature of the mass. They cannot tell by means if radiological findings if it is a thymoma, thymic hyperplasia or another mediastinal tumor.
Given some of my new issues (extremeley painful neuropathy) a paraneoplastic syndrome could be going on which could improve after tumor removal.
Anyway, I am going to have this mass with my thymus removed via a median sternotomy.
I dont find much information about thymectomy outside the MG world, thats why I came here.
So here are my questions and I would be very gratfeul if I could get some answers.
1. how long does thymectomy via sternotomy usually last? I was told something about 1-2 hours - is this true?
2. most important: if you felt improvement of your MG symptoms after surgery - how long did it take for you to notice first improvements?
And how much have you been improving after surgery overall?
3. was there any problems with your GI system/intestines? as I have a severe intestinal dysmotility disease this question is quite important as well.
Thanks so much.
Sarah
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Hi Sarah,
Welcome and don't be sorry about posting a question to a group that's most likely to be able to answer you.
1. I have no idea how long the surgery actually lasted. I was put out at 9ish in the morning and didn't fully wake up in recovery until around 7pm. I'd not be surprised to hear it was a couple of hours though. They've got to cut the bone, remove the thymus and any masses they find around it and then wire up the bone...
2. I noticed very rapid improvement in some symptoms and very slow in others. Two years later I'm still seeing some improvements.
3. not me, sorry I can't help here.
Cheers,
Brian