The radiation safety officer leaned and held a radiation meter over me to get a reading. Other people were receiving their treatment in this office as well. After many humorless days, I found it funny that the room consisted of a Jew (me), a school teacher and a priest.

It sounded like the beginning of a bad joke without a punch line…

September was Thyroid Cancer Awareness Month. This kind of cancer, or any form of cancer for that matter, was not on my radar screen, nor did I even know what the thyroid does or could become cancerous.

But I quickly became more aware of it when I was diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer back in June. Threatening to wreck my perfectly planned summer, I quickly submerged myself in what I needed to do to get better in order to not lose too many unpunched holes in my Parker House card.

The good news was that I had the "good cancer". I didn’t have to go through chemo, I wasn’t going to lose my hair and I was still going to be able to have children.

What I hadn’t counted on however is how a cancer diagnosis changes your perspective on just about everything. All the sudden, your well-being becomes a top priority. Managing your health care and the insurance companies becomes a full-time job.

It turned out that I had options available to me that made my treatment easier to bear although it would mean I’d incur considerable out-of-network fees. It was like I had to get a second job just to pay for my out of network expenses, and it was and is incredibly frustrating.

For a quick tutorial, your thyroid is a gland located at the base of your neck; just below your Adam’s apple. It is shaped like a butterfly-one wing, or lobe, of thyroid lies on each side of your wind-pipe. The purpose of your thyroid gland is to produce, store, and release thyroid hormones into your blood. It basically affects almost every cell in your body and help’s control your body’s functions.

If your thyroid is on the fritz, you could experience various symptoms like changes in your metabolism and or low energy, depression, difficulty in concentrating, fatigue, forgetfulness, dry skin and hair, puffy face and eyes, inability to tolerate the cold, weight gain, constipation and heavy menstrual periods in women.

Not all patients experience these side effects. You could also experience these symptoms and while that may signal you have a thyroid disorder, but it doesn’t mean you have cancer. I didn’t experience any of these symptoms previously (although I like to blame my weight gain on my thyroid) but I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer nevertheless.

My condition wasn’t anything that I had felt sick over for a long period of time before being diagnosed. My doctor saw a noticeable (to him, not to me) lump at the base of my throat and asked me key questions:

Was I tired all the time? My answer was, "Who isn’t tired living in this town, working hard, partying hard?" Sure, I felt fatigued and had been missing more and more Pilates classes, but I just attributed it to many late nights.

Did my voice ever go hoarse? My answer was, "You go out to bars and try talking to your friends through the smoke and over the loud music for hours and see if you’re hoarse after a night out?

Did my throat hurt? I replied that it seemed like everyone was suffering from allergies and it did feel like I had swollen glands for weeks on end but I never gave much more though to it.

 

So after being sent for a biopsy just to be sure, I got the surprising news. My immediate reaction was, "I can’t have cancer! I am way too young."

But unbeknownst to me, thyroid cancer is one of the most common cancers in women in their 30’s. My next step was the total removal of my thyroid.

I spent one day in the hospital and was home less than 23 hours later after the surgery. The recovery from the procedure was relatively easy. Once a thyroid is removed, however, you have to rely on a synthetic hormone that mimics the thyroid. Adjusting to this medication was the hardest part for me; It was like my personality was removed along with my thyroid gland. I was constantly irritated, totally bitchy and just plain irrational for weeks on end.

The most important lesson learned was that a cancer diagnosis made me see who my true friends were. My friends and family were simply amazing and there isn’t enough I could do or say to repay them all for their good wishes and constant support.

I was also shocked and disappointed in some people whom I thought were my friends. For instance, I ran into one of my guy friends who knew about my diagnoses. He first failed to ask me how I was doing, and then commented on a tragedy he experienced earlier that morning.

I was immediately on alert, what kind of tragedy? His response; he ran out of hair gel when he was getting ready for work.

What an assclown, I thought.

Some people just don’t think…I told him to join me for a field trip to Sloan Kettering and see all the sick children in hopes that maybe that would retool his brain for what a "tragedy" consists of.

I don’t ask myself, "Why me?" but do reflect on what there is to learn from going through something like this. After all, I am certainly no saint or the nicest person all the time, but I am learning to be more empathetic towards people and a little kinder.

What I have learned from my "summer vacation" is a new perspective of what is truly important. All the self-inflicted drama that occurs in Hoboken or at the shore is simply bullshit. Sure, it seems significant at the time, but in the larger scheme of things it really doesn’t matter if you don’t have your health.

The things that used to bother me don’t matter as much anymore. These past five months changed forever the way I look at things.

It’s given me pause to acknowledge the fact that life is short.

I know I am lucky.

Lauren Miller is a contributor to realhoboken.com. For more information on thyroid cancer, visit the Thyroid Cancer Survivors Association at http://www.thyca.org/