It took a while for the cytology report to come back after my thyroidectomy to rid my body of the papillary thyroid carcinoma they found back in March.

In that time, I had some surgical complications to recover from. I had an infection at the surgical site and an allergic reaction to the surgical glue that caused a blistering rash to form all over my neck, chest, shoulders, and upper back. As it turns out, allergies to skin adhesives of various kinds are extremely common in people that have hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome as I do, including to adhesives and glues used during surgery. It took a lot of medication and rest to recover, and in the interim, I was wondering if I was going to be declared cancer-free once all was said and done.

The great news is that I am 100% thyroid cancer-free! The good news is that my infection is gone, and my skin rash is extremely minimal after nearly two weeks of oral and topical steroids plus double the antihistamine, and my scar is healing up really well despite all the irritation that I had at the site for a while. It’s unlikely to be very noticeable once some more time has passed. My voice is recovering great, and it should resume its usual pitch within a few weeks to a few months. I cannot tell you how much I have missed my voice. It was altered by my swollen thyroid for over a year prior to them discovering my thyroid cancer. Once my throat heals inside, I’ll hear it again for the first time in a very long while.

All of that is truly good to know. As with all things in life, though, there is an opposing side. I’m convinced that the hidden force that maintains this balance between good and bad in our lives does so just to keep us humble.

My nervous system has been incredibly dysregulated by this entire experience, especially going back to the actual surgery, where my body endured a lot – but even prior, my body and mind endured a lot, knowing little about the cancer and the chances that I would come out of this without needing further treatment. My fibromyalgia symptoms have been really amping up, my migraines have increased, and my depression and anxiety are troublesome once more.

It’s not uncommon for physical trauma to have any of those effects, and even though the surgery was for a good cause, it is still just physical trauma. I’m still living with the effects. Knowing why they are happening does help make them more manageable on a logical level, but not really on an emotional or physical one.

Normally, I vent a lot of my feelings into my writing, but I’m struggling to create right now. I have decided to start a dedicated practice, though, to help get my creative juices flowing again. Hopefully, that will allow me to process my emotions better and help me to regulate my nervous system a little bit more once again.

I do other things, of course. Somatic exercises and meditations are among them, along with seeking support when I’m feeling dysregulated, taking medication and supplements as needed, and getting a lot of extra rest.

I’ve still got my novella out to beta readers. I’m waiting on feedback. When it comes in, I’m looking forward to polishing up the story and getting it ready for publishing this summer. I’m so excited to finally have a full story in print, even if it isn’t a full-length novel. Little things like that truly make me happy and help me keep going even when things feel grim.

I’ve made it my goal to get back to work again within a year. It took me 3 years (from 2022 to 2025) to get the diagnoses and care that I needed to learn how to manage my medical situation. Prior to all that, I was a social worker for adults disabled by mental illness. I can’t do that anymore for asinine reasons, but I can become a peer specialist for adults and do new, equally exciting things to help people. In the interim, I’m hoping to make some kind of paltry income off of my writing.

That’s about all that I’ve got today. Thanks for reading!