Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful moms out there. I thought of the moment I received my diagnosis last November of papillary thyroid carcinoma. Part of me had this feeling, a strange one that my ancestors, the women in my family, were saying, "Hey! What's up?" This strange blood memory moment may be attributed to the fact that thyroid issues run on my maternal side-- from my mother to my late grandmother and to my late great-grandmother. (I do not know any further back who may have had thyroid problems. The further back you go in my family, the more you get into turn-of-the-century and 1800s rural Jamaica in which I do not know what thyroid illness detection was like.) As far as I know, I am the first one to have thyroid cancer in the family.

Nevertheless, I felt like this comforting link that the women in my family had thyroid issues (whether they be hypothyroidism, goiter, thyroidectomies) and still survived. I felt almost to surrender that it was my turn now.

There is no known specific causes of thyroid cancer but there are genetic correlations as well as links with radiation exposure.

When I was about 20 years old, I went to my doctor and asked him how I could prevent myself from getting hypothyroidism. He told me that there was no way I could prevent it.

So I guess it just happened.

In my books about healing, the thyroid is discussed as responsible for emotions and also for dreams/goals/passions. Maybe my genes, my ancestors are giving me a nudge to pay attention.