***How good is it to go through a 10 hour surgery, have your neck cut from almost earlobe to earlobe, have giant bags hanging from your chest that are just filling up with blood and who knows what else is coming out that you have to drain on a daily basis...not being able to drink a sip of water or eat food without choking and gasping for air days and weeks after surgery...having your face, hands, feet and legs go into painful and severe cramping and tingling that's feels like you are being stabbed with little needles all over your body from lack of calcium due to losing your parathyroids which control the calcium in your blood....enduring countless blood draws and IV sticks all over your body ...your hands, arms and even feet...where you are praying that the phlebotomist gets the vein and doesn't leave you with a giant bruise or painful shocks that radiate down your arm when they make an "opps" and keep jamming the needle over and over again into your arm....
***Countless CT, MRI, Pet Scans and every other type of scan you can imagine where you are constantly being exposed to harmful radiation....
***Unending Dr's appointments where you have to wait and nervously find out if your disease is progressing or stable....
***Chemotherapy and the horrible side effects that can go along with it to worry about such as extreme diarrhea, vomiting, all over body rashes, QT prolongation of the heart, high blood pressure and countless more...
***Not being able to keep your TSH hormone regulated since you now have a missing thyroid due to tumors invading it and going from hypothyroid where you are sleeping all the time, depression, losing hair, body aches where it is hard to even move, weight gain, swelling of the face and body and many more or when your are in a hyperthyroid state where your heart feels like its beating out of your chest, you constantly sweat, insomnia where you can't sleep for days at a time, extreme anxiety and shakiness and several more symptoms....
***The constant thought when you get any ache or pain thinking that the cancer could be progressing and spreading more throughout your body....
**The financial and emotional struggles you and your family suffers with on a daily basis...
*** The fact that at 25 years old ,I have the reality that I may never be able to have my own children now that I am on chemo and feel the joy of being a mother and have that experience which is something I always wanted.
OH! and let me throw some numbers out at you.... 16...that is how many pills I have to take everyday to regulate my body now and essentially keep me alive....112 is how many of those pills I take in a weeks time...448 is how many I have to now take in a month and finally 5,376 is how many of those wonderful pills I take in a years time...and those are just for this "good" cancer I have and doesn't include any over the counter pills or vitamins for every day use....This is all just from my life in the less then 2 years of having this so called "good" cancer.. Here's another number to throw at you 28%...that is what statistics say is the percent chance that I supposedly have to live from this in 5 years....which I never pay attention to or focus on, but still seeing that number is a scary thing!! Many people can have it much worse then I do or better but all in all ...IT IS NOT GOOD!! I didn't write this blog for any type of sympathy or pity but I wanted to raise some awareness to this world of the life struggles someone with thyroid cancer goes through...maybe this blog will make people think the next time the words "good cancer" ever come out of their mouth and if you are around me and I ever hear those words you may just get a smack in the face.... If this is good then I don't even want to know what people would think bad is.....until next time...
Also**** September is Thyroid Cancer awareness month so you will be hearing a lot more from me to keep raising awareness! Oh, and next time your hear anyone say thyroid cancer is the good cancer...direct them to this blog! Thank You!!
Well said girl, we all have our battles and each have our own different fight! I so support you on this one thyca sister! :)
ReplyDeleteThank You so much!! Keep on fighting and I appreciate the support! <3
DeleteSo true. You said it all. The problem is that ppl are not educated enough about MTC. They assume if you have cancer you must have had chemo or radiation not understanding that most MTC is surgical removal.
ReplyDeleteMy new goal is to keep raising awareness about thyroid cancer and start to educate people as much as I can...I can not stand when people assume things...all they have to do is ask...thank you for reading my blog!
DeleteAmen sister... I didnt have to have chemo but I did have to have my thyriod remove do to cancer in2011 and in 2012 had to go back cause it had spread to my lymph nodes so I to have the scar from ear to ear... what I have is called mens 2.. its a gentic cancer.. my mother also wears the scar as do several others in our family.. I hate when people say u had good cancer.. if they had to walk a mile in our shoes the would see... but I loved ur blog and just wanted to say ur not alone.... look me up on facebook carrie scaggs
ReplyDeleteCarrie, thank you for reading my blog....chemo or no chemo it is still such a struggle and battle and I hope to raise awareness to show people that it is not a walk in the park like some people may ignorantly think...just remember that scar is the scar of a fighter and we should always embrace our scars..they show our story...I also have the genetic for MEN2A except mine is a bit of an odd ball and I have a denova gene which means I am the lucky first to get this cancer but I feel so blessed that it is just me...more people need to learn to put themselves in other peoples situations and "walk in their shoes" as you put it! I looked you up on fb and I requested a carrie scaggs...hope its the right one or someone is going to wonder why they are getting a request from this random person! LOL Keep on fighting girl!
DeleteThe dreaded C word..... Lost my mother and my brother to cancer, and my sister (sister in law) is currently battling thyroid cancer. I use to tell her how good she looked and one day she was telling us how someone else had told her how good she looked and how she responded to this person with "good thing you can't see my insides". well I was floored by her response because I knew I had told her on numerous occasions how good she looked. I had no idea that when I was telling her how good she looked i was actually offending her (and probably the many others I have made the same statement to). I always thought it was kind, loving, feel good statement- I would have never associated it with being a negative or hurtful comment. I think many people are ignorant because they don't know what to say or they think what they are saying is heartfelt but really is not the right words for someone dealing with this. Áwareness is just what our society needs. God Bless you and your families. Thanks
ReplyDeleteI am sorry for your loss of your mother and brother...and I hope your sister in law keeps on fighting...I often have people tell me how good I look and I try not to get offended and take it as a compliment...except I do have those occasional days where I just wanna tell them I may look it but don't feel it...I think you are right people do not know how to approach people with cancer which I guess is understandable but I think the biggest thing for me is as long as you treat me like a human being and like a "normal" person then that's what I care about...I have lost friends and people have seemed to disappear since I have been diagnosed and I don't understand it but that is their prerogative and that's what they choose to do....I personally would never do that but everyone is different. I appreciate your comment! Thanks for reading
DeleteFabulous blog post!!!! You said what I have been thinking for a few months. I unfortunately first said I had the good kind of cancer when I first thought I had the simple thyroid cancer. Over the past 9 months I have learned there is no good thyroid cancer at all. People are very uneducated and the media doesn't get anything right. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! In the beginning I have to admit I even though based on society and what you hear in the media that thyroid cancer was a "better" cancer to get but boy was I naïve and ignorant to that statement...the sad thing is this statement is also coming from our Dr's who we normally trust and confide in....oh what I have learned since being diagnosed!! Thanks for reading Becky! God Bless!
DeleteI don't understand why anyone would ever say any cancer is good :( Glad you put this out there for people to get some perspective!
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I don't understand it either!! Such an ignorant/naïve statement to make!!
DeleteWe have the EXACT same story xxx big hugs to you xxx
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