Through the Eyes of the Canary-A Thyroid Cancer Story

Hi out there. I'm pretty new to this and not yet quite savvy to the blogging world so I guess I'll begin with a little introduction. I'm age 35, married and the mother of three adorable children ages 18, 5 and 3. This could be a story all unto itself but that's not really why I decided to write. A few months ago I found out that I had Thyroid Cancer. This in and of itself is not terribly remarkable. However, the circumstance surrounding how I got the disease is. When I was 14 years old, I hiked 65 miles into the dessert just outside of  Las Vegas, NV. I was with a bunch of hippies and we thought it would be a good idea to camp out at the gates of the Nuclear testing facility with the hopes of forcing a halt to a planned underground nuclear test. The underground testing had been going on for years and some pretty strong evidence showed that, although the government claimed that radiation leaks were contained within the testing facility, they in fact were not. We stalled the test for several days and were on the way to believing that the test would not take place after all, however we were wrong. They exploded the bomb and we were all exposed to a high dose of radiation. Many of those stinking hippies were at least young adults and by virtue of size and physical maturity, would have all been better prepared to resist the effects of radiation poisoning. However, at 14 years old, 5'2 and 107 pounds, I was a slight little thing and the radiation was more than my tiny body could withstand. Now I have a metastasized cancer usually found in adults 55-65 years of age or older. Most people who get the disease usually contract it after a lifetime of background radiation exposure from the sun and/or electronic devices. This is not me. I am here to say that I am a picture of what there is to come from living in a radioactive world. The doctors are not too concerned because thyroid cancer is usually highly treatable and the prognosis is good. But as someone who struggles with the physical and emotional effects of the treatment, it is far from a walk in the park. Thyroid cancer is on the rise with more and more cases being reported every year. I want this blog to be a place to bring awareness to the consequences of living in a toxic world and the implications for our children. Maybe its not too late. If I can do one thing in my life worth doing, it would be to tell people that this is a horrible disease whether or not it causes death. I wouldn't wish this on my worse enemy. If you choose to read on, you will come with me on a journey through daily struggles, psychiatric and medical appointments as well as the mundane day to day things we all go through only they will be written here through the eyes of someone suffering through the disease. I hope you decide to join me.