Dear Thyroid™ � Life Redefined

Life Redefined: New Thoughts

Joanna Isbill — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 21:33:23 +0000

It finally happened. I don’t really know how or when, just that it did. People used to tell me that a day would come when I wouldn’t dwell on cancer. I didn’t believe them. How could it be possible? How could I ever get through a day where cancer wasn’t at the forefront of my [...]

Life Redefined: Worthy of Love

Joanna Isbill — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:35:48 +0000

This past August I had an ablation dose of RAI to try and destroy the remaining thyroid tissue in my thyroid bed. This was my third ablation, so I knew what to expect. Low iodine diet, thyrogen, dose, bowel prep, scan, wait, results. When I was at the hospital to take the RAI, I set [...]

Life Redefined: The Cause of Cancer

Joanna Isbill — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 18:00:27 +0000

How many times have you wondered what caused your cancer? How many hours have you spent wracking your brain, trying to figure out what you did wrong that caused cancer to grow in your body? I know I’ve thought about it. Was it something I ate? Something I didn’t eat? Lack of exercise? Plain old [...]

Life Redefined: Looking Back at Grieving Forward

Joanna Isbill — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 18:00:35 +0000

A few months ago I wrote about grieving forward (you can read it here)–grieving over who we used to be pre-sickness while still moving forward with life. I feel the need to press into this a bit more because it is such a work in progress.Grieving over the loss of a loved one is an [...]

Life Redefined: Conflicted

Joanna Isbill — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 17:08:09 +0000

A couple weeks ago I went to my offline cancer support group. This group meets once a month and is a treasure to me. I love the people in this group and I love the encouragement and knowledge they bring.At our group meeting this month I was fiercely reminded of how conflicting life can be. [...]

Life Redefined: Sharing September

Joanna Isbill — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 19:00:17 +0000

September is thyroid cancer awareness month. This really is not new information for this community because we live and breathe “thyroid.” But did you know that it’s also prostate cancer awareness month and ovarian cancer awareness month and childhood cancer awareness month and gynecological cancer awareness month and blood cancer awareness month? That’s a lot [...]

Life Redefined: Scanxiety

Joanna Isbill — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 21:47:59 +0000

This past month has been a month full of health stuff. I-131, scans, blood draws, ablation, more blood draws, more scans. Lather, rinse, repeat. I knew it was getting to be that time of the year for scan, but everything was set into motion really quickly. The clinical manager at my endocrinologist’s office called and [...]

Life Redefined: The Low Iodine Diet

Joanna Isbill — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 20:42:32 +0000

Yesterday was the first day of my annual low-iodine diet as I prepare for a whole body scan. I hate this diet. To be honest, the diet itself is not bad. The food is all good and fresh and, if you choose the right meals, is actually quite healthy. The reason I hate the [...]

Life Redefined: Thyroid Cancer News Edition

Joanna Isbill — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 19:04:42 +0000

Vitamin D isn’t exactly a rare topic of conversation around this community because of the role it plays in thyroid health. Let’s take the conversation one step further by examining this study that looks into the relationship between thyroid cancer and Vitamin D3, the active, useable form of the important nutrient. Scientists have discovered that [...]

Life Redefined: Dancing in the Rain

Joanna Isbill — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 20:45:26 +0000

Not long ago, a friend gave me a card with a message penned inside that really made me think. It said, “Don’t wait for the storm to pass; dance in the rain!” That’s probably a cliché that we’ve all heard on multiple occasions, but for some reason, this time it meant something to me. I [...]