tuesday, january 17th, would have been my mom's 80th birthday. so, i declared that day "wear red for gaby day". red was my mom's favorite color. and not a wimpy red, but a stop sign,red. so yesterday, i wore a red sweater, red necklace and earrings, and red shoes. my husband wore a red tie ( and red underwear, but hopefully no one saw that!). my children wore red as well. i good friend of mine, who happens to have the same birthday as my mom, also wore red.
now i know that we have many important " awareness of this or that day". the different cancers,heart disease,etc. but i also think that we should seize and name certain days of our own. i celebrate may 19th as my cancer free day. it will be two years this may 19th( my surgery day). i consider it my cancer liberation day, but i guess that is not entirely true, since i needed the I-131 in july to kick the rest of the cancer bums out of my house. still, last year on may 19th, my husband sent me a beautiful arrangement of flowers to work. i had made a cake for us for that evening. i am so thankful to have this day to celebrate! my favorite color is green, so i will wear green this year on may 19th. the day is evolving for me, so i will keep editing the "rules" for the day.. i hope that every cancer survivor, thyroid or other, will celebrate their "liberation" day. it is special, and you are special for dealing with things and fighting your best fight.
my good friend( the one who wore red yesterday) sent me a bracelet for Christmas. it is pink( one of our thyroid cancer colors) and says on one side" life is tough". on the other side it says" but i am tougher.". i love this sentiment. i do not know if it is always true, but i hope so. i aspire to always maintaining a positive attitude about my thyroid cancer and hopefully helping others along the way.
this weekend at work, i talked with a man who had had his thyroid" killed" as he put it, because he was so hyperthyroid. he had had the I-131 and we talked about that for a while. he told me a little about his story, and i told him a little about mine. when he left, he said, thank you for sharing your story with me, i feel blessed. and last week, i happened to answer the phone at work and on the line was a young woman who had had thyroid cancer several years ago and basically has been without care since then. her TSH was up to 49 and no one knew what to do for her. i told her that she needed to go see an endocrinologist, or at least a doctor who specialized in treating thyroid disorders. i told her about mary shoman's website, aboutthyroid.com. she should be able to find a doctor, they have patient reviews there, who will meet her needs.
it makes me happy to know that i can help someone else with thyroid disease, especially cancer, in some small way. i am always amazed at the way that i am pretty much always the person( we have four pharmacists on staff) that ends up meeting these people. it seems to be coincidence, but who knows. of course, i do wear not one, but two, thyroid cancer ribbons on my lab jacket. and i wear the thyroid cancer bracelets, along with the pink bracelet my friend gave me.
so hooray for awareness days, be they national or personal ones. make your own rules, enjoy the day, honor a loved one's memory, or just have cake.
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