DEAR THYROID^TM

I’ve been listening to a lot of my favorite vintage songs of late. One comes to mind, “The Goodbye Girl”. Though it’s a love song, the title reminds me of our community’s forced reinvention. Yes, I know, I hock about this constantly. I have something new to say on the topic. Shocked?!

If we have to reinvent ourselves and radically change our lifestyles, we have to mourn the loss of our former selves. And say, Goodbye, girl or guy. By doing so, by letting go, does it invoke fear that we’ll never reclaim, even a teeny part of our former selves? Speaking for myself that would be a resounding, blow me, I’m not letting go – YES. YES. YES.

Stay with me for a minute… What if we reexamined moving our reinvention stories forward, in a way that didn’t feel like letting go? What if we learned to live side-by-side with the loss and forged onward, what would that picture look like to you?

I think many of us feel angry, frustrated and sad because we want to go back to being who we were. Speaking for myself, this is absolute truth. It pisses me off that I have to say, Goodbye, girl. Do you feel that way, too? Or not?

Dear Doctor: You’re Fired, written by Melanie, was a Dear Doctor Dear Thyroid Letter. She sent her doctor a letter. Here’s an excerpt “I was only 24 years old—about the same age as your two youngest children—when you first diagnosed me with thyroid disease. Since that time, I have educated myself (as I hope anyone would) on the effects of this life-changing disease. I know what it feels like to have this disease under control through proper medication, and I know what it feels like when my levels are off.”

Today’s comment…

faith72 says:

Thank you Melanie,I am sharing this letter with my friends. To help explain my situations with my primary care doctors. I figure it would help explain things that I go through every month and how I feel for them. It will build more support for me.

Life Post Thyroid Cancer, Quality Of Life And A Happy Neck, written by Alexa Landsman is a research paper from the patient perspective about thyroid cancer. An excerpt “A diagnosis of cancer is never what someone wants to hear, nor does that person want to hear that they have the “good cancer.” Thyroid cancer is known to be highly treatable if caught early, but if you asked a thyroid cancer survivor they probably wouldn’t tell you it was easy—and I can say that from experience. “

Today’s comment…

yogichic says:

“There was also a subgroup of patients who were assessed 1 year after their diagnosis of thyroid cancer and they scored lower on mental health, role-emotional, role-physical, social functioning and vitality. This should be as no shock as their duration of cure had only been a year, and coming to terms with their disease is a new concept.”

Finally, an explanation why I have been so down in the dumps. I fall into this subgroup of patients as my 1 year anniversary of adios thyroid is August 14th. Between my dosage of meds continually being tweaked and not knowing if any odd or different reaction is a result of menopause, lupus or no thyroid, my husband thought maybe I needed to see a shrink because I have been feeling totally out of whack. It’s refreshing to know I am NOT going crazy and hopefully sooner than later I will get my muse and joy back as time goes on.

Thanks, Alexa, for sharing your research paper. It is awesome and very informative. Hope you got an A because you sure deserve one!

☮ ♥

Monica

Tags: Comment of the Day, community building, Dear Thyroid, graves disease support, hashimoto's disease support, Health Community, health support community, hyperthyroid support, hypothyroid support, literary community, literary support, thyroid cancer support, thyroid community, thyroid literary community, thyroid support community

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