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There Was Nothing Sweet About Our Termination
Dear thyroid;
I miss you. You did your job just fine. It’s a shame we had to part ways. It’s been just over a year.
Unfortunately, while you were doing your job, a cancerous tumor had been building for at least 8 years and hardening itself to my trachea. It invaded my neck muscle and many lymph nodes. It grew to be the size of an egg before the doctors found it. By then, it had compromised you, as well as your 4 parathyroid siblings. Had they waited just 2 more weeks to operate, I would have woken up with a trach tube and the cancer would have been terminal.
I could have happily done without the 25 radiation treatments that took my voice, made the skin fall off my neck front and back, the hair loss, and nausea. The burnt esophagus that stopped me from eating for 8 weeks was more pain than I can put into words, but the 54lbs lost wasn’t all bad.
I miss regular menstrual cycles. I also miss mornings without meds. I miss not having hot and cold spells, and I could do without the mood swings.
I miss you thyroid. You did nothing wrong. There is a fabulous scar where you used to be. It’s my battle scar that tells the world I’m kicking cancers ass.
~Trina
—
Trina Wesley, Vancouver BC, 41 years young, Mother, grandmother and fiancée
Complete thyroidectomy March 28th, 2008
RAI treatment in June 2008 – unsucessful
25 external beam radiation treatments completed December 24th 2008
Currently waiting to see endo for body scan. Fingers always crossed
You can find out more about Trina and how she’s doing by following her updates on Twitter @ImACutieFace. And she is, my darlings, a Cutie Face.
Tags: Dear Thyroid Letters, thyroid cancer Dear Thyroid Letters, thyroid cancer letters, thyroid cancer support, Thyroid patient letters
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4 Responses to “There Was Nothing Sweet About Our Termination”
Leave a Reply to Donna
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Trina,
I am so sorry to hear what you have had to go through. I have had thyroid cancer, but your bout sounds way worse than mine. Whenever I feel down I will think of you and be thankful my situation was not more serious.
hi Amber, 🙂
thank you so much for your kind comment! please know that your thyroid experience is so valid and important too, even though often times our problems seem much less terrible than other people’s. no matter how big or small, our experiences are all important and we’d love to hear from you about how thyroid disease has affected you too. we hope you’ll consider submitting a letter.
I love this because instead of sounding devastated, you are a able to look past all the bad and recognize that life is good. You went through a lot of treatment, yet you hold your head high. You are amazing 🙂 How did your scan turn out a year ago? I’m hoping all is well, good health to you!
Love, alexa
Hi Trina,
Thank you for being so brave. You inspire me. I would love to know how you are doing now.
I am a 47 year old follicular thyroid cancer survivor and had a perfectly tuned thyroid too so I understand deep in my bones how it turns your life upside down and you don’t even see it coming.
You give me hope that even if this returns I can handle it. Thank you is not enough.
I am emotional for you, the tears are streaming down my face. I hope you are okay.