Preface

I want to make sure that I tell my whole story, which is still in the early stages and continues to unfold. This all seems to have started years ago, but when I look back on my calendar, it's really only been about two months. The whole idea of this blog is to make sure that I document my experience of having thyroid cancer. Why? The reason probably has to do just as much with educating others as it does with trying to process everything that's happened recently.

So I guess the place to start is exactly with the first question that went through my mind. What is a thyroid? The way I understand it, the thyroid is a little gland at the front of your neck. Although it's small, it has lots of big jobs. It's in charge of metabolism, heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature to name a few. According to the Mayo Clinic, 37,000 cases of thyroid cancer are diagnosed every year and that number is steadily increasing, probably due to better diagnoses. Most of the time, people detect a lump on their neck (like I did) and that gets the ball rolling. There are several types of thyroid cancer such as papillary (that's mine), follicular, medullary and anaplastic. The cause of thyroid cancer really isn't known, but it is a familial disease, so genes have a lot to do with it.

The last few weeks have definitely been an emotional rollercoaster. The joy of having our second child, followed by the heartbreak of a cancer diagnosis and all the ups and downs in between seem like a life’s worth of experiences all on their own. But, this was in God’s plan for our family. In fact, as my mom always tells me, He has let every experience pass through His hands before it even comes to us – He knows and is Lord of ALL! I’ve always treasured the first part of Jeremiah 29:11-13, “For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.” But just recently, it’s the second part of that set of verses that has really hit home: “Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” God will always find a way to bring us closer to Him, no matter where we are in life.