Intro:
Thyroid diseases and thyroid cancers are fun, right? Unfortunately not; they deeply affect us as patients and our families, indelibly leaving an imprint on our minds, bodies and souls. None of it is easy. If we’re going to bring awareness to this disease, we have to come together as a family. Our collective voices have the power to invoke change. Because the holidays are a time of celebration with the people we love and a time to reflect, what better way to ignite change, and move our stories forward, oh and have a laugh along the way, than to connect with each other?
Bio: I'm a senior in high school. The holidays have been my favorite time of year. My siblings come back into town from college. I get to eat what I want. And the best part no school.
1) Have the holidays and your experience of them changed since you've been diagnosed?
They have changed some, for one I cannot up at all hours of the night. I have to be careful about what I eat, my mood, and other things that are supposed to be all bubbles and smiles during the holiday.
2) What is your favorite holiday food/dish from childhood? What is your favorite dish now? (Did you have to change your diet at all since being diagnosed?)
Well since I'm still technically a child. My favorite is a sasage and egg cassorle we have for Chrismas breakfast.
3) Off the top of your head, is there one comment from friends or family that sticks out in your mind as a what-were-they-thinking kind of thing that brought your disease front and center for everyone at the holiday function to hear about?
Probaly, "what's a thyriod?" But most of my family get's it, I have been diagnosed for 2 years so.
4) How do you get through the stress of the holidays, paired with a disease? What are your coping strategies? Yoga, being able to get away from everyone. And I sometimes forget certain things.
5) Do you feel the need to enlighten and educate your loved ones about your disease when you get together for holidays, as people are often curious about our illnesses? If so, how do you educate them? Not really, if they ask about it I will but I don't openly go around the holiday dinner saying "I'm sick!!!"
6) Has your disease ever showed up at the wrong time on a holiday and ruined the day or moment? Yes, I hate being triend on new years it's the worse.
7) Have you thought about submitting a letter to Dear Thyroid? If so, would your letter be a love letter or a hate letter? Would it be to your thyroid or from your thyroid? I have it was a love to hate you letter.
8) If you could tell the world one thing about thyroid disease (or thyroid cancer) that you feel they don’t understand, what would it be? That it is really not me crying it's my thyriod.
9) What is the greatest misconception regarding thyroid disease and thyroid cancer? That I'm crazy. That I'm not the same person any more. That's what gets on my nerves when I see someone from middle or elementry school and say. Why have you changed?
10) What is the stupidest thing someone has said to you regarding your illness that, to this day, still makes you laugh or makes you angry? "You look great, have you loss weight?" and I would say every time, yes it has every other month my weight does go up and down, thanks for noticing beocha.
Dear Thyroid is a literary thyroid support community and blog. Thyroid patients are invited to submit Dear Thyroid letters; love letters and hate letters, among other thyroid literary things, such as Thyrants, Thygraphs, Thykus, Thyetry and Thysongs, etc. Our goals are for all of us as a community of patients to connect with each other and our diseases, and to bring awareness to thyroid diseases and thyroid cancers, we need and deserve a face and a voice. For our non-literary crew, we have monthly Flickr pools. Recently, we launched Dear Thyroid Local Meet Ups for offline support. Dear Thyroid Forums are forthcoming in December.
