Thyroid Cancer

Struggles of Survivorship

I am about to celebrate my 5-year cancerversary. As I reflected on my own experience with thyroid cancer and what survivorship means to me. It’s not my fault that I had thyroid cancer.

How My Experience with Thyroid Cancer Affects Relationships

I think sometimes after we have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer it means that it doesn’t directly affect connecting with others who had a similar thyroid cancer who are in the AYA Community.

Trapped

Trapped in a bed. In a room. On the oncology floor.
Will they ever let me leave?

What I Wish Someone Told Me About Thyroid Cancer

I think there is nothing that anyone, including myself, could do to prepare ourselves for thyroid cancer. How can we give advice, share information about our own past, validation and self-awareness pre-diagnosis with thyroid cancer? Sometimes I wish I knew about thyroid cancer right before I had my total thyroidectomy surgery. Since I was diagnosed […]

The Ghosts of Cancer That Haunt Us

I think of supporting our cancer patients and survivors who have dealt with the Ghosts of Cancer by showing how we can deal with our own Ghosts of cancer to our cancer patients and survivors. When they are experiencing cancer and grieving losing their relationship with their spouses, siblings, and family members or losing someone who had cancer, it can be very painful. 

Hidden But Not Forgotten: A Story About Refractory Cancer

Dear Cancer,

I remember being diagnosed with you back when I was 27. How the simple words, “You have cancer,” changed my life in an instant. I was alone with a pathologist and a radiologist, not exactly hearing the words that were being spoken to me.

What I Wish I Knew About Getting a Thyroid Cancer Diagnosis

I wanted to write about some things I wish knew about thyroid cancer. I just know how scary and frightening a thyroid cancer diagnosis is. I went through thyroid cancer treatment and radioactive iodine treatment for my thyroid cancer. It can be a scary experience for anyone who has a family history of thyroid issues. As a thyroid cancer survivor, it can make you feel a lot of mixed emotions, and it can cause some toxic thoughts.

How to Support Friends Through Survivor’s Guilt

I think it is important to support cancer patients who are going through their cancer journey. There are many cancer survivors who are struggling with survivor’s guilt and have lost someone who has been through cancer.

Finding and Losing Myself

In 2012 I was invited to a celebration for cancer survivors at which I spoke about finding my sense of self again after cancer. I still have a printed photograph from the event. On that glossy paper I was captured wearing a sleeveless white dress with a red sash. I looked healthy, and I was smiling. I was 22 years old.

The Invisible Battle

It all started when I was diagnosed with Graves disease and thyroid nodules in the summer of 2020. I was told I was a complex case but my endocrinologist never said the word cancer to me, so it never even crossed my mind. Being 33 years old and diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer is never something I could have imagined.