Make an appointment now to see your endocrinologist or doctor in 4-8 weeks
Most endocrinologists give their patients a followup appointment at the time they know their patient is having parathyroid surgery. If you have an an endocrinologist but don’t have a followup appointment yet, call them the day after surgery and tell them you had surgery and need a followup appointment. The endocrinologist will give you a lab slip to get your calcium and PTH tested a few days prior to visiting with them.
If you don’t have an endocrinologist, no worries, about 50% of our patients do not have an endocrinologist. That is just fine, so make an appointment with your regular doctor or PCP. They too will give you a lab slip to go get your blood drawn to check your calcium and PTH (and other stuff).
We will send your doctors everything
Within a few days of surgery we will send a short letter to your doctor as well as a copy of the photo of what we removed. We will also send them a copy of the operative report and the pathology report so they have all the answers.
Bottom line, if you don’t already have an appointment for a followup with your doctor after the operation, you need to call them ASAP and get this arranged.
What is the best time to see the doctor in followup?
About 4-8 weeks is best. Some doctors want to see you within a week or so after the operation. We think this is too soon and prefer that you don’t worry about this for 6-8 weeks. We prefer you wait several weeks, preferably 4-8 weeks to check your calcium and PTH levels because it isn’t fully settled before this time. If you measure it 1 week after the operation, the PTH is often a little bit too low because the normal glands you still have (which were asleep for years) haven’t fully woken up and started regulating things. So relax and don’t worry about checking labs or seeing a doctor for a month or two. Remember, we took a tumor out—we didn’t put one in!
What to tell your doctor
Tell them that you love us! And then, wee have an entire page for you to show your doctor when you go see them. First, know that your doctors will receive copies of your records from us about 7-10 days after the operation. They will get a letter from us, a photo, your hormone levels after the operation (the blood we drew from your arm about a half hour before you left), and a copy of the operative report which gives details of the operation, the thyroid, the other parathyroid glands, etc. Show this page to your doctors: INSTRUCTIONS FOR DOCTOR PAGE