Shouldn patients spend the night after surgery to monitor their calcium levels?
This is a technique that was standard until the mid 1990’s. If your surgeon is not very experienced with parathyroid surgery, he/she may have you spend the night (or several days!) and measure your calcium levels every 6-8 hours or so. We have taken care of thousands of these patients, so we know what to expect. We give all our patients calcium pills and full instructions on how many pills to take. This is very simple. Your calcium will drop when the bad parathyroid gland is removed, so… take some calcium pills for a couple of weeks. It is really no big deal as long as the patient takes their pills! We send about 1800 patients per year home an hour or two after the surgery and they begin taking their pills within 1 hour of leaving the hospital. AND… every patient gets Dr Norman’s and Dr Politz’s home telephone number and cell phone number so they can call them directly any time with any questions. Make sure you know to contact at your surgeon’s office if you have problems with calc
