The Stupid Cancer Blog and Out the Door with 2008

There has been a nice diversion from thinking about my biopsy scheduled on Monday. I was in contact with Matthew Zachary from the amazing website I'm Too Young For This and The Stupid Cancer Blog earlier this week. His website and blog are amazingly wonderful, irreverent vehicles for the young adult cancer fighters and survivors. I love the whole concept….you don’t have to tip toe around cancer. Meet it square on and kick it in the butt!

~~WARNING: Shameless self-promotion ahead~~

Anyway, Matthew and I emailed about me contributing a blog post, and I am thrilled to say that it was posted to The Stupid Cancer blog yesterday. Here’s the link:
http://imtooyoungforthis.blogspot.com/2008/12/will-you-come-into-my-parlor-said.html

I really love the whole blogging and social media arena and am thrilled to have mixed that together with the cancer world. Cancer is like a fraternity/sorority except you really don’t really want to belong to it. However, once you do, it’s a whole new community ready to embrace you and your cancer battles.

So it is out the door with 2008, and to it I say…good riddance! It started out great with my 10th/40th birthday (I am a leap year baby…). It had its ups and down, including the thyroid cancer diagnosis in July, but overall, hey, I’m ready for a new start, a new day, a new year.

To those of you who have followed my blog, my cancer journey, our family, and frankly even those I who I have no idea who you are, I say best wishes for 2009! Let’s move forward, get on with life and doing what we REALLY want to do.

Comments

Quite a pay raise!

Today I received a press alert via email from my alma mater, Oklahoma State. Check out the first two paragraphs below: Following only the sixth nine-win regular season in school history, Oklahoma State University today announced a contract extension for head football coach Mike Gundy, giving him a new seven-year contract worth $15.7 million. The contract was announced following action by the OSU/A&M Board of Regents at its regular meeting in Miami. With the new contract, which is effective Jan. 1, 2009 and runs through December of 2015, Gundy’s average annual compensation will be more than $2.2 million. His current six-year contract paid him $1,053,000 this year. What the heck? That's quite a raise, and he didn't even beat OU, Texas, or Tech! Now, I went to OSU when Mike Gundy was the quarterback there. He was the quarterback during Barry Sanders' Heisman year. He seems like a nice guy and a great coach, but wow... In all fairness, I have to point out that I also read ...

More about batting a thousand...

Ah, I didn't really explain the "batting a thousand" reference in relationship to me when posting on the blog last night. Was still in a bit of a fog from the news I received from the ultrasound. A bit of history... Batting a thousand: 1. June 2008: ultrasound reveals suspicious nodules that should be biopsied. 2. July 2008: after biopsy confirms papillary carcinoma, neck ultrasound to look at lymph nodes finds suspicious lymph nodes. Post-surgery found out about the four positive lymph nodes, two of which were the size of small plums. 3. December 2008: Ultrasound post total thyroidectomy and neck dissection, small nodules found in the thyroid bed along with a suspicious lymph node. So in summary, every ultrasound I have had of my thyroid and neck this year has revealed something suspicious. Thus, I am batting 1,000 with the ultrasounds in 2008. Feeling rather bleh and crappy about it all today. It's Christmas...why do I have to deal with cancer again? Ugh.

On my soapbox about "the best cancer to have"

Those of you who follow me on Twitter know I was on my soapbox this morning after reading yet another article about the dreaded subject of how thyroid cancer is "the best cancer to have." Think about that...the best cancer? Why would someone say that? In an attempt to make you feel better about having thyroid cancer, some health care profesionals try to convince those of us who have or have had thyroid cancer that it is "the best cancer to have" because it has a high survival rate. An aside here, that high survival rate applies to papillary carcinoma, one of the three types of thyroid cancer out there. Survival rates are lower for medullary carcinoma and anaplastic carcinoma, the other two types of thyroid cancer. Back on topic...OK, so tell us that papillary carcinoma has a high survival rate. Truly, that is good news. But because of this "best cancer to have" statement, and the fact that I was told my thyroidectomy would most likely be just an easy, ove...

Charlcie

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