March is here which means Spring Break! Our kids love it, right? A week off from school, and it always serves as a reminder of the summer fun that’s only a few months away. For most parents, Spring Break tends to be a little stressful. Whether you’re scrambling to organize a vacation or scrambling to organize week-long care, definitely not as relaxing as it seems at first glance. I think I might be in the minority when I say normally I love everything about Spring Break – because I’m a teacher haha!
Spring Break for me is normally one of two things: either my daughter and I tag along on a vacation with my parents, or we spend the week relaxing around the house, doing a fun, local activity everyday. But this year, my Spring Break is going to be different, because this Spring Break I am going to be spending it in an oncologist’s office.
I have thyroid cancer. It’s supposedly one of the “best” cancers to get if you have to get cancer. I hate when people say that, but for the most part it’s true. It’s normally easily treatable, survival rate is normally very high, and recurrence rate is normally pretty low. I fall into yet another minority, because my thyroid cancer is a pretty stubborn case. I have been dealing with it off and on since I was 19, although I most likely started having thyroid cancer during high school. When I was 19 I had my thyroid removed due to a very enlarged goiter, and that’s when they discovered the cancer. I’m almost 32 now, and have had 3 additional neck surgeries and also done 3 rounds of a special type of radiation for people with thyroid cancer.
Unfortunately, I am running out of treatment options. My body has built up a tolerance to the special type of radiation for thyroid cancer. External beam radiation (what you think of when you think of radiation) should be put off as long as possible because it has some pretty nasty side effects and is predicted to greatly affect my quality of life. So for the most part, I’m stuck with surgery. But each surgery has an increased risk, so we’re trying to put off surgery #5 for as long as possible.
Last spring, I made the decision to stop seeking medical treatment locally, and over the summer I went and saw a team of doctors down at MD Anderson in Houston, Texas. I had been thinking about it for the past few years, but kept putting it off… it seemed like too much effort just for my cancer. Crazy, right? I have cancer and I was too lazy to travel for my care. I finally decided to make an appointment, and I am really grateful I did. I lucked out, and ended up with a great team of doctors down there. Not to say that the doctors at Siteman aren’t fantastic, but I’m confident that I am receiving care where I am supposed to be. Since thyroid cancer is normally easily treatable, unfortunately not a lot of funding goes towards thyroid cancer research. MD Anderson is one of the few places in the US that is doing some new research and exploring new treatment options when it comes to thyroid cancer.
So in a few weeks, I’ll be headed down to Houston. Hours spent in hospital waiting rooms, blood draws, CT scans, neck ultrasounds, needle biopsies, and really yummy Mexican food are definitely not the norm for my Spring Break (ok, the Mexican food is a norm for every week of my life), but I am grateful to have the time off to go. My biggest regret is that I won’t be spending Spring Break with my daughter – she’ll be staying back in St. Louis with my parents. So whether you’re going on vacation or staying here locally, embrace whatever extra time you can spend with your children…because I will definitely be missing mine!
