It has been a long day and her surgery was more than the doctor expected -- rather than just removing the left lobe, he discovered more issues on the right side so he proceeded to remove the entire thyroid in a six hour operation (we had discussed this option if the need arose). Because of her smoking history, chonic asthma and sleep apnea, she will stay in the critical care unit with a breathing tube in place overnight to insure she stays ventilated. She will face radioactive iodine treatment following her healing and lifelong synthyroid medication. I finally got to see her about 9:00 PM and she was still pretty well sedated so she didn't know I was there. It was an eleven hour day, but she came thru as well as can be expected...
Thanks for everyone's kind words on her behalf; believe me, we appreciate every comment.