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Circling the Drain of Change
“And you stood tall now you will fall
Don’t break the spell of a life spent trying to do well
And you stood tall now you will fall
Don’t break the spell of a life spent trying to do well” — Lullaby by Sia
Lesson #1: Disease changes our perception of ourselves and our relationships with others
Lesson #2: Some people are incapable of accepting that we’re healthy, even with thyroid disease or thyroid cancer
Lesson #3: It is human nature to project onto others
Lesson #4: Many of us harbor unrelenting, behemoth guilt, shame and inner conflict, about how our disease has affected ourselves and our family, and friends.
Lesson #5: Thyroid disease and thyroid cancer is grossly misunderstood and is, for lack of a better word, the step-child of the endocrine system. Moreover, our diseases are unsexy.
Lesson #6: Reinvention. How?
Lesson #7: Thymentia dominates our conversations with ourselves and others.
What lesson(s) would you add to the list?
When you feel like you’re breaking free of the cocoon, so the butterfly (bad metaphor, I know), can spread it’s wings and migrate or fly to a new location, what holds us back?
We expect so much of ourselves and our families, which is unfair to everyone. We’re overly sensitive. Some of us are guilt junkies, while others are simply irate and incapable of seeing our diseases through the eyes of others.
Let’s boil it down even more. Change. We need change, within ourselves, our relationships and the medical community. Lack of awareness and education is winning the war on our diseases. The onus is on us to revolutionize education and awareness. Enter Dear Thyroid; a brand rooted in the fundamental belief that each of our Dear Thyroid Letters and other literary works paired with iconic images of healthy, beautiful women and men will in part, achieve this.
If we want a revolution, we have to do more. Write more. Connect with each other, and share our letters with as many non-thyroid people as we can. I say this because if we don’t, we can’t invoke the change we seek. The medical community is reaching out to us. They are listening to what we have to say. Some folks want to guest post, while others want an opportunity to learn more about us, to be better practitioners and healers. Families are emailing in record numbers to express their unmitigated pain that they’ve endured, yet fearful of saying as much. We’re championing their effort and hoping that some will share their stories.
Do more. Write more. Approach awareness fearlessly. Know that while there are some schmucks out there, there are also gems. Doctors are facing the same issues with insurance that we are as patients. Moreover, we need to educate the masses. Together, we can.
This is my call to action, my missive asking for MORE, MORE, MORE involvement, sharing and educating. Every single one of us IS making a difference. Our words are being heard. Take that in for a minute.
Love,
Katie
Tags: bridging the gap of awareness and education for thyroid diseases and cancers, circling the drain of change, feeling misunderstood when managing chronic illness, invoking change for thyroid patients, learning how to change, learning how to reinvent ourselves, learning to support our family, learning to support ourselves, lessons learned by having disease, seeking familial support with thyroid cancer
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12 Responses to “Circling the Drain of Change”
Leave a Reply to yallolorry
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Yay! I like MORE! I see us all reading and nodding quietly in agreement… I know we are here… reading, learning, understanding each other… My tiny mission is to help share words… they have such great healing power. I know this from my own personal experience. Lean on this community and in turn you will feel the power.
Amanda
Proud Volunteer for Dear Thyroid
I’m not going to circle the drain. I will not be flushed down the drain.
*stomping foot*
That being said . . . I do adore this community. I wouldn’t be where I am or know what I know if it weren’t for ya’ll.
The people here have a unique way of taking medical jargon and breaking it down so that it’s understandable.
Love you guys! (Really. I mean it!)
more. more more more.
Love you so much. Am so proud of you. You are my fucking hero.
xoxoxo
M
Katie,
Thank you for writing this. As you say MORE, I think I am beginning to note that “more” are being compelled to add more to the comments. I feel a hum of activity that I didn’t sense before. I am hungry for MORE! As I share my own experiences, exposing so much of my vulnerability,my goal is to connect with others who share these “quadrants” of my being.
How can we know its getting across to the otherside?
On the weekends this site shuts down…..is it a lonely time for anyone else but me?
I need MORE too! Xoxoxox Linny
Linny,
Well said. I worry about the “non-response”, which is why I volunteered. Weekends are so tough for me to get online, and there just shouldn’t be a lag in “helping/supporting”. We all are fragile at times, it would be nice to have MORE on weekends. I will work on some positive solutions to this issue. Thank you for your opinions and continued support.
Amanda
Thank you Amanda, you are really working hard on this site to propel these voices forward. I commend you on your prolific efforts.
I too will try to be MORE! As I undress my emotions I do feel very vulnerable.
I protect myself by not having a facebook. However this works against me at times because I cannot connect with people I would like to.
For as forward as I can be speaking here, I make every effort possible to hold on to my privacy.
It is a delicate balance.
My fragile nature does not handle the fear of deeper relations, because of my experiences of hurt by others.
I wish I were braver. I worry that being as open as I have others might have damage to give me. I do not need MORE damage!
Lovingly expressed thru DT, Linny
Linny,
I don’t recommend Facebook as a place for us to support… I think of it as the place to promote, which is what I try hard to do. Your continued “comments”, letters and poems are the MORE we need. You are welcome to use “mingle” to ask questions and encourage conversations. Ask me if you need help with that. It is easy, but I see where some are a bit confused by it.
Amanda
tell me MORE about “mingle”…..how is this different, how is this secure. There may be MORE of us out there that would like to know how this works. And also twitter, does this expose identity to “everyone”?
“Mingle” is here, within this site. You have to be logged in to talk, so only members here will be there and see what you say. It is as secure and private as this. Your information is only what you have currently shared. It is as close as we get to a forum here. If you are logged in, you can go right to “mingle” here: http://dearthyroid.org/profiles/mingle-activity-page/ There are boxes you can write in, I believe it says “what’s on your mind”. You can ask questions, talk or just rant. It isn’t used as much as it could be…
Twitter is a bit out of my league, I live in the boonies and don’t have great cell reception. Basically you use your cell phone to post a text online for others to read or follow. You can “follow” and read tweets,…[what people write there]and you don’t really have to belong or share there. I do read a bit. What “Dear Thyroid” does there is quite a bit of promoting… trying to get people here to this site for participation.
Thank you so much Amanda! What part of the country do you live? I am in the midwest. My childhood was spent out East, on different Navy bases mostly.
Linny… I am in Vermont, born and raised here. 🙂
great post Katie, I love the vision for Dear Thyroid and am happy you’ve asked for more participation, I’m posting all over this evening as I can’t sleep!!
I think I learned a big lesson today, not sure if it’s relevant for others but I’ll share it.
Lesson #8 we don’t have control over this thing or how other people may respond to its effects on us, but we can love and cherish ourselves and give ourselves a break, even when others don’t.
Oh ho, and I’ll tweet that lesson right now with a link back here… you don’t need to be on a cellphone to use twitter, it works just fine on a computer too….