I had my Total Thyroidectomy done 29 days ago, today. Few days post surgery, I started feeling my shoulders and lower neck muscles all tensed up, and starting to hurt. My initial thought was that my brain is telling me to ease up in turning my head to prevent the wound from opening up. Kind of a natural body instinct. I started turning my neck a bit more as I tolerate it.

The past 2 week was getting worse. I wake up in the morning with BAD shoulder muscle pain/stiffness. I have been alternating OTC Tylenol and Motrin since surgery. I don't really want to do that as I have a lot of medicines that I am currently taking now (maintenance).

I saw my Endocrinologist yesterday for my post-op follow-up and Synthroid med adjustment. I was instructed to call the doc who did the surgery to schedule appointment for the muscle pain. But of course, they are fully booked until end of December.

This morning, I woke up with the same pain. I will have to go back to work this coming Monday. I don't know if I can work with this muscle pain. Will this go away on it's own eventually?

Any tips on how to manage the pain, other than OTC medicines? I tried heat pack. It help mask the pain for few minutes. Slight massage also help. Any other suggestions?

I recommend requesting a referral to a physical medicine specialist. The surgeon is not going to be able to help you. I've had cardiac patients develop "frozen shoulder" after long cardiac operations; it is more decreased range of motion than pain, though. You may benefit from physical therapy, but a physical medicine physician (physiatrist) would be needed to recommend the proper PT. As to whether it will get better on its own, I don't know.

Try sleeping in a recliner and see if that helps.

Thank you both for the suggestions. I failed to mention that my shoulders start raising up on it’s own, without me intentionally doing it. My wife always have to remind me that my shoulders are raised up again, then I will have to mindfully lower them down. I even see the difference in some pictures we took few days ago. Really weird. I’m on my 2nd Tylenol and 1st Motein today. Also slapped couple of those Salonoas heated/medicated strips.

You might benefit from muscle relaxants. Valium is as good as any, but there are others.
Oh by the way consider asking to have your calcium level and PTH checked. A total thyroidectomy also involves removing the parathyroid and that affects calcium levels. Probably not, but worth asking.

I have no medical education, but I can at least share an experience supporting doc’s comments above about Valium. I had a complete shoulder labrum separation repaired via arthroscopic procedure this past June. Post surgery I developed bursitis on my elbow and tendinitis on the other side of my arm. It hurt a heck of a lot more than the shoulder / surgery site. My ortho doc perscribed Valium as a muscle relaxer and within a few days it was tolerable and basically gone after 3 weeks or so. Considering I had just been dealing with it for almost a month through PT I felt pretty stupid for not describing how bad it was sooner. Hurt like hell. Hope you get some relief soon.

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Originally posted by ador:
I saw my Endocrinologist yesterday for my post-op follow-up and Synthroid med adjustment. I was instructed to call the doc who did the surgery to schedule appointment for the muscle pain. But of course, they are fully booked until end of December.

The surgery was four weeks ago and the surgeon can’t see you for another five weeks? This is just wrong. Never heard of such a thing. Perhaps you need to change the tone of your request. Doctors really don’t want patients complaining about them in this day of social media and online health department licensing records.