Another good meeting! I always feel energized after my support group meetings because I'm talking to people who have gone through the same things I have, whether it was a few years ago or even a month or two after I started my ThyCa journey. No one else could ever know what we have to go through - the fears, the frustrations, the very fact that not a lot of ENDOs here in SD are very well versed in ThyCa, and countless people telling us that we have "the best/good/easy cancer to have"....
What we have in our group is recurrence, repeat scans, ENDOs that don't know what they are doing, advocacy. Somewhere along our journeys we all come to realize that no one is looking out for us, so it is up to us to ask, repeatedly, if necessary; to question if we don't understand (our treatments or test results) or if it is not protocol that we know is expected. I'm getting to a point where I really think I need someone else to look at my blood levels and my scans because I'm still not sure my ENDO knows what he's doing.
Anyway, we had a good turn out last night. Several had attended the annual ThyCa conference in TX two weekends ago, so they shared some of what they learned/heard. I'm still bummed that I missed the session that addressed Hurthle cell and some of the other papillary and follicular variants. I guess I'll just have to wait for next year, which I have just learned will be in Los Angeles over the same weekend next year. So, mandatory departmental meeting or not, I'm going to LA for next years' conference!
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