# advice and information



## monique46 (Jun 8, 2015)

Hi. can any of the cancer survivors here give me any advice and can you tell me bit about your fight?? I met a woman in 2009 who had thyroid cancer and she had her thyroid removed. she was 2 years older than me very nice lady. she did one of my numbers had a baby late in life.. lol my point is she looked wonderful you would never know she was sick. i met 2 other cancer survivors as well they looked great too. we were all in the same class..


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## Octavia (Aug 1, 2011)

Honestly, I don't intend to minimize what you're going through right now, because it's a big deal at this moment. I am four years out now, and my thyroid cancer was a major inconvenience, and not much more than that. I do not define myself as a "cancer survivor" because I don't identify with that definition. It's a blip in my life story...a big thing to deal with at the time, but it wasn't and isn't all that difficult of an illness, in all honesty. (All due respect to people who deal with more aggressive and/or more advanced cancers, thyroid or other.)

You WILL get through this. It's scary and there are a lot of unknowns, I know. But in the scheme of things, there are many worse situations humans can go through. I am confident that in a year or two, you'll be able to look back on your experience and think "that wasn't as bad as I thought it would be."

My "fight": two surgeries, each with an overnight stay at the hospital; one RAI treatment to kill off any remaining thyroid/cancer cells that weren't removed surgically; three annual full body scans so far to check for recurrence; periodic labwork; and two tiny daily pills. That's the quick summary.


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## monique46 (Jun 8, 2015)

thanks and hope some more people post it would be appreciated.


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## joplin1975 (Jul 21, 2011)

Yes, my experience was the same. I've hung around on the thyroid cancer survivor's network forums and, sure, there are some people with more difficult journeys -- there's not doubt about that. However, the vast majority of us view it as an inconvenience and sometime else we need to add to our healthcare screenings, but not as a major life changing event.


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