Some Answers

Enrique spoke with his surgeon today and got some reassuring answers (and an apology).

She couldn't operate yesterday because Enrique's level of TSH were too high for him to safely receive anesthetic.

TSH is a hormone that the brain secretes to stimulate the thyroid to release its own hormone.

Since Enrique no longer has a thyroid, his brain is releasing tons of TSH, trying to get his missing thyroid to work.

That shouldn't be happening. The thyroid hormone replacement pills (Synthroid) that Enrique takes should be tricking his brain into thinking that he still has a functioning thyroid.

The surgeon saw Enrique's high levels of TSH the day before the scheduled operation, but they were so high, she thought they were a mistake.

She decided to bring him in for the operation anyway and do another blood test just to confirm "the mistake."

We now know that the first test wasn't a mistake and that they surgery had to be postponed.

In retrospect, she (and we) wish she had let us know about the possibility of having to postpone surgery from the beginning. She apologized, which we really appreciated.

She is guessing that his body isn't absorbing the Synthroid because it is binding with his calcium supplements.

Now he's taking the two pills separately. Because these are slow-moving processes, we won't know if that will bring his TSH levels back to normal for a couple of weeks.

All this means that Enrique's surgery needs to be postponed another two or three weeks. Sigh.

Finally, the famous surgeon wasn't brought in due to any special complication with Enrique's case. He was just available.