Wow, has it really been 9 months since my last post? It’s been an eventful 9 months to say the least. Shortly after I posted my last article here on baking soda shampoo, I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. I have spent the last 9 months fighting the disease as well as a life threatening staph infection and an emergency gallbladder surgery. I am now proud to call myself a Cancer Survivor! Now that I am past my thyroid surgeries, gallbladder surgery, cancer treatment, and now on a steady diet of Synthroid I am feeling sooo much better! So much so that I have been going around the house cleaning constantly and my husband, Troy, has teased me that I have been nesting. There are two reasons for this…first of all it’s because my home desperately needs a deep cleaning.  With me being basically useless around the house for months and my husband trying to take care of me and all of the day to day stuff (basically being a single parent) the house has been severely neglected.  The second reason I have been a “cleaning fool” lately is because I finally feel good enough to actually do something!

I have told many of my friends, once you truly see your life flash before your eyes and you live to tell about it, it changes the way you view EVERYTHING. I had already been going through a journey of sorts that started in summer of 2010. I had been studying the word of God and really working on some personal things in my life.  Nothing like being told you have cancer and almost dying from a staph infection to kick that journey into high gear. I'm so glad I had already been growing in faith or I don’t think I would have been able to deal with all of the ups and downs as well as I did.

Now that I am doing so much better I have returned to work and started to try and return to normal life again. I'm not sure what “normal” is anymore though. I don’t think I can ever look at life the same again. Things that once would drive me crazy don’t bother me anymore and things that I didn't think too much of are now the things that I cherish the most. 

I would like to take this opportunity to get the word out about thyroid cancer. Cases of thyroid cancer are steadily increasing with the biggest increase being in women.   According to the American Cancer Society about 56,460 new cases of thyroid cancer will be reported in 2012 and of those cases 43,210 will be in women and 13,250 will be in men. 

 Don’t know why people aren’t talking about thyroid cancer. We need to get the word out about this disease. With the overwhelming numbers of women getting this disease why aren’t we being told about it? We hear about the importance of regularly checking our breasts, but how is it we aren’t told to check our thyroid?  The mass on my thyroid was the size of a golf ball and I had no idea it was even there. You couldn’t see it when you looked at me. After the doctor found the lump there and pointed it out to me, I could feel it easily. They estimate because how slow growing this type of cancer is vs. the size of the mass I may have had this cancer in my body for 7 years or more. The doctor said I could have actually died from my cancer and no one would have been the wiser until they did an autopsy.  Ladies please, please, please start checking your thyroid for lumps. If you feel anything odd let your doctor know.  Ask for thyroid guards when getting x-rays also. Even my dentist has ordered new x-ray bibs that have attached thyroid guards because of the rise in thyroid cancer.    

If you or someone you know are going though your thyroid cancer journey I would love to hear from you and how you are dealing with it. Please post a comment and share your thoughts and encouragement here for others to benefit from.

I plan on blogging on a regular basis now that I’m feeling better. I will continue to talk more about crafts and DIY beauty and cleaning supplies.  I also will toss in a few “deep thoughts by Kimberly” from time to time.  I posted my testimony on my personal facebook page about a month ago. I think I will post that here for you all also in the next day or two, so be looking for that.

Until next time…God bless,

Kimberly