#lastweekofaugust

For the last week of August, some major changes happened in my life: 1. I learned I have stage one cancer of the thyroid, papillary follicular variant. 2. I love my friends and family so much and they love me too. My life is really spelled L-O-V-E. So much cheese here but I love cheese too so I don't mind.  3. I spent time with Janelle, hanging out at Art Circle Cafe, and I drove us together to school!!!! :) First time I drove that far SOLO and I believe I did it pretty well. I loved having lunch and spending time with her. I forgot how good it feels to be around people you love so much and who love you just as much! :) It's a great wonderful feeling that makes me love and appreciate being alive. 4. This deserves a separate number just because I really never really could imagine myself driving alone in the streets of Manila, but I did! And I did it TWICE this week!!! :) 5. I skyped with DAVID!!! This is the FB message I sent my HS best friends regarding number 1. Hey guys!!!! So results from St. Luke's just came in this week and I've been debating about telling my loved ones about this but I think I have come to full acceptance of it and I have realized that I can't protect other people from pain and I still want to keep my relationship with the people I love the most and people who love me the most and this is too big not to tell people I consider as parts of who I am, my identity and my soul.  I have papillary thyroid cancer, the follicular variant. It was in stage one, which means it hasn't spread to other parts of my body. It was 2cm, so still pretty small. It was taken out of my body when I had surgery. I have researched a bit and my findings reveal that people diagnosed with this kind of cancer usually have a good prognosis given the  fact that I am younger than 45, I am female, only one side of my thyroid had cancer, and it was papillary follicular variant. Right now, I have to monitor my cancer, my thyroid hormone levels, my calcium levels. Also, I need to take radioactive iodine again to kill any remaining traces of cancer and then after that I think I can resume with my thyroid meds. I am in good doctors' hands right now, and I plan to survive this thing, even if the chances of relapses are there. I plan to be a cancer survivor! And I plan to live a long, healthy adventure filled life. So I hope you won't worry about this too much. smile emoticon I love you! And I miss you.