DEAR THYROID^TM

It is undeniable that I am known for hocking. Do you know what hocking means? Hocking is the equivalent of persistence x 10. I admit this. For a long time I believed this was something I needed to change. I don’t hock in my personal life, just in my professional life – DEAR THYROID, etc. I push us. I push myself. I hock and I hock, and I hock some more. I won’t stop hocking. I hock you to write Dear Thyroid Letters, because your stories matter, they are integral to others understanding the severity of our respective diseases. I hock you to tell me how you’re doing and feeling. I hock about your satisfaction with your doctors. I hock about local Dear Thyroid Meet-ups. I hock you to participate in everything we do on Dear Thyroid. I HOCK YOU TO BITS AND PIECES.

Why do I hock, right? Why do I have to be such a royal pain in the ass, right? Wouldn’t it be nice if I backed off for 5-freakin minutes, right?

NO. NO. NO. Said the hocker.

I believe with every fiber of my being that together we can improve diagnoses, treatment and ultimately, hopefully, find a cure for thyroid diseases and thyroid cancers. I believe that if we work together and fight like dogs, that we can provide each other with more than emotional support; financial support, among other things. I believe that we can change the land of the gland, and people’s perception of our wretched diseases, which are misunderstood, misdiagnosed and horrifically marginalized.

So, yes, I hock. I won’t stop hocking, not until we get the change we so rightly deserve. I will keep hocking you about how you feel, how your relationships are with your doctors, and so much more. I need you to remember something, please: DEAR THYROID isn’t about ME, it’s about WE. I’ll make a deal with you, I will open the floor for questions right now; anything you want to ask, in comments, I will answer, if you promise to consider the aforementioned. Do we have a deal? Sound fair? Doable?

—

Triple Whammy or How to Cope with Multiple Cancers: Part II – “Dearly Beloved” – by HD. If you haven’t been following this series, now would be a great time to do so. Please don’t hesitate to share it with friends and family. Those suffering with multiple cancers have an opportunity to get tips, support and resources from a patient who endured multiple cancers, as well as share theirs. There are so many people contending with multiple cancers. We don’t want them to suffer in silence. Thanks to HD, we have an opportunity to share that experience with others.

Parts I and II are also listed in the aforementioned URL.

Excerpt: “I didn’t make a secret at all of my illness. Right from the beginning I spoke openly and candidly about the cancers. It helped me deal with it while looking another person straight into the face.”

Comment of the day…

Lou says:

Dear HD,

You are indeed very fortunate to have this wonderful wife.

In any illness we who are sick and can’t do for themselves all the time and the mental clarity it takes to keep track of what and when and how we do our medicines and keeping track of appointments and noticing changes that we ourselves might not it is wonderful to have a “wife”!

I have often made the comment to my husband; I wish I had a wife! Often men cannot take on this roll of nurse. Many men will leave because they are not able to be the often considered “female” role of caretaker.

Don’t misunderstand, you do realize her value. It is not your fault that men cannot fill this necessary role in reverse.

Many women suffer alone. The loss of her hair and the gaining of weight and other changes make her feel very inactive. Losing her spouse may not be these reasons but trust me, she will think so.

I’m sure men have their unique set of problems only known to men but certainly loss of hair is not one of them, so many men do anyway and it’s so in fashion now that many men are shaving their heads.

So be grateful as you are, and bless the men in this world that are able to put on the cap and be a nurse to their loved one.

Thanks for sharing; I hope you heal from all you’re suffering. Take care, and kiss your wife.

Thyme For Literary Healing: What Have You Done To Find Your Way Back To Yourself? The conversation is AWESOME. Please join. The question, the thing we want to discuss is: “I know we can’t write our way out of our diseases, obviously. While it took a bit of time for me to reach that conclusion, it didn’t stop me from writing and hoping, and wishing with every ounce of my being, that once I closed my document, I would be healed. Today’s literary healing is about YOUR canvas.”

Comment of the day…

jillautumn says:

I believe that my biggest issue was realizing that I had a disease to begin with. My affliction has always been that I thought I was indestructible, that I could overcome all and that there was nothing to big for me to overcome or conquer on my own. I have spent my entire life overcoming many obstacles and made it my personal mission to never let anything get in my way. However, the sicker I got the more I began to realize that there was truly a problem. Unfortunately, my choice was to work harder and push myself through the confusion and pain. I honestly didn’t think I would get as sick as I have become and thought that the harder I worked to overcome how I was feeling, the quicker I could heal myself (without the help of anyone else, of course). When it got to be too much to handle- when I could no longer get out of bed, make it through a day without tears, play with my children, etc.- is when I finally gave up and made a doctors appt. I am angry and feel defeated. I have been a guinea pig over the last several months and have been diagnosed with quite a few terrifying diseases and disorders I never even knew existed. I physically feel worse than I did when I finally walked into my doctor’s office and none of my doctors seem to agree on anything. Incredibly frustrated.

I know, after reading some of your posts here, that there will be a day – hopefully soon- when I will start to feel better. I am incredibly happy for those who do. I am still stubborn and determined to beat this somehow; maybe that’s what keeps me going.

It has made me feel better to type this out. Wow. Thank you.

Dear Thyroid Monthly Meet – Up’s – MEET-UPS ARE GOING FAMOUSLY. You must get in on them. Kerri launched a new, even more fabulous initiative “Today we are announcing Monthly Dear Thyroid Meet – Up’s! In order to facilitate our community coming together, we will have consistent Meet – Up’s every third Sunday of the month.” Once a month, we are going to hold meet-ups in every city, every single month for offline support. Please read Kerri’s post and contact her for any questions you have. If your city isn’t listed, get it listed!

–NEWS AND UPDATES – PLEASE SHARE WITH OTHERS, TOO—

Win A Beautiful Water Color Drawing: The Thyroid Queen, By HD

Thyroid Mad Libs, Enter! Your Team Will Each Win A $25 iTunes Gift Card

Thyroid Cancer Survivor Roll Call: A Celebration of Survivorship

During the month of September, Dear Thyroid is going on a blog tour to promote awareness for thyroid cancer. For this blog tour, we’ll be asking bloggers to write a post on their own blog that addresses some questions provided by Dear Thyroid regarding thyroid cancer and thyroid cancer awareness. On the day we are scheduled to make a “stop” at your blog, Dear Thyroid will post a brief description of your blog along with a link from our website to yours.

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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