If the gland still grew, and the symptoms became worse, there remained the alternative of ligating or “tying off” the lobes, in order to diminish the secreting power of the organ. Or, more radical, yet hardly more generally effective, an operation was made—extirpating (cutting out) a considerable portion of the body of the thyroid.
This, as may be imagined, is a very serious operation, and fraught with considerable danger. Not so much from the operation itself, as from the consequences of the operation upon the psychological and mental condition of the patient. Not infrequently the entire nature and disposition of an individual may be changed by the apparently simple procedure of removing a few cubic inches, or less, of tissue.
So, on the whole, goitre has been a bugbear—most unsatisfactory from every angle. Yet, with the proper application of the principles of zone therapy, goitre—including the most advanced forms of exophthalmic—is one of the many conditions we are most certain of curing.
Almost from the first treatment, the feeling of suffocation, the distressing nervous symptoms and the pulse rate are favorably influenced. In from two to eight months the “pop eye” and the swollen gland are progressively reduced to normal.
Up to this writing, I have had more than thirty cases, every one of which, with two exceptions, have been cured and discharged, or are well on the way towards a cure. The tape measure shows that in some of these patients the swelling decreased three inches in as many weeks. One very responsive case was reduced from 14 1/2 to 13 inches in less than three days’ treatment. The photographs accompanying this chapter speak for themselves. (See Figures [7] and [8].) There is no possibility of doubting the actual accomplishments of this method in the face of these visual demonstrations. And, as with all matters detailed in these pages, the original patients and data may be seen by any medical man who is fairly interested.
Fig. 7.