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Could My Thyroid Cancer Be Environmental?
Dear Thyroid,
I would like to apologize to you. I never paid much attention to you. Heck, I barely knew where you were; let alone what you did for a living. To add insult to injury (or rather, injury to insult), I constantly abused you. Sure, the abuse was unintentional but it was also unrelenting. What I ate and drank, how I handled stress (poorly), even the clothes I wear (toxic jeans! Ack!) And the air I breathe is important to you.
Your protest has been heard and I promise to take better care of you and all my other organs. I hope that someday you can forgive me. I know now how important you are in every aspect of my life and I would really like for us to be able to work together again.
Love, Trish
(Bio) My name is Trish, I’m 45 years old and I was diagnosed a year ago through a routine blood test. I’ve been lucky to have a great doctor and understanding husband (maybe too understanding. If he had called me out for being a bitch, maybe something would have come out earlier – but probably not.)
I have three close friends who have all had thyroid cancer. We are not only socially close, but close in age and geographically. Hmmm.
I am Hypothyroid, likely with Hashimoto’s and doing well on my version of synthroid (most days).
I tweet as @PTriciaBee
Tags: Dear Thyroid Letters, papillary thyroid cancer support, thyroid cancer, thyroid cancer anger, thyroid cancer blog, thyroid cancer cluster study, thyroid cancer clusters, thyroid cancer fighting back, thyroid cancer in same locations, thyroid cancer letters, thyroid cancer patients taking control
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8 Responses to “Could My Thyroid Cancer Be Environmental?”
Leave a Reply to mea
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Trish,
Great letter! I too wonder about all the things I have done that may have contributed to my thyroid disease [Graves Disease and nodules].
Glad you have a great doc and understanding husband… that is so important… good support!
Take care,
Amanda
it is also my opinion that the world around us is causing these illnesses.
Does anyone else struggle to breath around burning leaves in the fall? My throat swells shut and I end up with a throat infection….
I’ll bet all of us have general weaknesses to things that general population can handle {they think} ultimately I believe everyone is or will be effected.
Thanks for your story, I can so relate……I’m a little older than you and have had these problems most my life. Only in 2002 was I told Graves was the cause.
Hoping for understanding and solutions, Linny
Hi Trish,
Thanks for your letter. I wonder too about how my thyroid cancer came to be so I can help others avoid whatever mistakes I made. I don’t think there is one easy answer but I do believe that in general stress is not good for any of us and that the environment plays a factor in our overall health.
I was diagnosed at 43 and was in good health. A lump in my neck that my doctor said was sinus drainage was my only clue. My TSH was normal. It was not until people started to comment on my double adam’s apple that I insisted more tests be run.
Happy to hear that you are doing well. I hope it continues for you and your friends.
Donna
Trish,
I’m the unusual male with thyroid disease, and my childhood town had radioactive drinking water, … and I’m a geographer. So, since you said you and your friends with the thyroid issues are all geographically close, I am wondering where you live. There are proven geographic patterns to thyroid cancer worldwide all due to above-ground nuclear tests conducted in the 1950s and 1960s. Iodine radioisotopes created as much as 50 years ago in nuclear explosions are still active in the environment, and they’re not really going anywhere.
You may be on to something…
We need a state-by-state cluster map!
And I think mine is from being at 9/11 that day–so exposure to the dust, but docs say “no radiation”. ::eye roll::
Hi ya’all, I’m new to the site, but not new to this disease. I had thyroid cancer at age 16 and am now 47. Lots of years fighting my body, weight and energy issues. I too wonder if there could be an enviromental factor, where i lived as a girl there was the worst looking city water ( looked like weak coffee with a lot of sediment) as well as a lot of cancer in high numbers for such a small area. Any way, years of struggle, was able to have a child at 21, which i found out later would have been less likley to happen ,although he was born premature and with lung issues at the time. I’ve had radio-active iodine as well because they thought there was somthing that needed nuked. Thanks for this forum, Mea
I live in the midwest. Now you mention it when I lived in Waukesha Wisc. I believe we had radition in our water too!@ Wow That’s were I first had throat trouble….1977-1986, then moved to Illinois.
I remember it seemed like i had problems choking easily as a child leading up to the discovery of the lump in my throat at 16, anyone think that could have been a subtle sign? Also required more real sleep than my brothers did at that age too. thanks! Mea