My Experience

A doctor saw and felt an unusual condition in the front of my neck and gave me a sonogram of the thyroid, which showed a nodule on the left side of my thyroid. He then advised that I get a thyroid nodule biopsy, which is a needle aspiration of the thyroid. This turned up possible cancer, and I was scheduled for thyroid surgery.

I wrote about the experience having the biopsy before the surgery, then a week or two after the surgery I wrote about the thyroidectomy. I also wrote about the follow up treatments.

At the beginning, my goal was to get myself prepared for surgery both mentally and physically. That was the starting point. Also, I could relate to other people what I went through, and hopefully this would help other people. I wanted to be of assistance to people in a similar situation.

I found writing was a form of empowerment for me, and hopefully for others. Empowerment is another name for control. Writing my post after my biopsy empowered me. And facing surgery, there is a feeling that you have a loss of control, there was a feeling that facing surgery you are a piece of meat in an assembly line; you’re unconscious and at the mercy of doctors and nurses and staff, whatever happens is what they do to you. But the patient does have a certain amount of control to what happens to them. The preparation is control. And when I went into surgery, I felt that I had everything going for me, that I was empowered.

When I wrote down my experience, and then read it, it was like a form of enlightenment; you get further insight you would not have gotten otherwise. Insight is the distinction between hearing and processing. We hear a lot but don’t necessarily process it. When I explained something in the posting I wrote, I heard myself say things, and I processed it in a new way.

Also, writing about my experience reinforced the direction I was taking with my care. The basic idea was that the patient can assert a certain amount of control. Writing reasserted that I had to be positive in my recovery. Having written about it, it cemented how important mind is over matter, and when I was recovering, it reminded me of this importance. It made me feel like being a patient was not a victim of the surgery, but instead an active participant in the steps I choose, including the surgery, to get better.