Hello,

A little about me… I was diagnosed with Papillary Thyroid Cancer about two months before my 27th birthday. Needless to say, the thought of having cancer at 26 was pretty scary. Luckily, or maybe unluckily, I had been through this news before, you see my mother is a two time cancer survivor (Stomach & Breast) so of course my thought process was “I got this” that is after the initial “WTF”.

I had a full thyroidectomy in August of 2014(that is once I was cleared for surgery..you’ll see in the blog), followed by Radioactive Iodine, followed by a lighter dose of Radioactive Iodine and bam I was good! Scans were clear! But those darn antibodies…

In December of 2016 (let’s not age me but at 29 and a half) I had a PET Scan done as my yearly follow up and bam… there it was… The RESIDUAL.. Metastatic Papillary Thyroid Cancer. In February of 2017 it was time, surgery part two, a selective right neck dissection.

A month after my second surgery I started a blog. I realized that when I was first diagnosed, I googled EVERYTHING and watched things on YouTube that half terrified me; but I wanted to be informed and I wanted to know my options. Most of all, I just felt like there wasn’t enough uplifting positive blogs that made me feel like ” I CAN DO THIS!”
Three years later, I decided it was time to turn one of my biggest dreams into reality. Before I was ever diagnosed with thyroid cancer I had dreamed of one day starting a nonprofit. Participating in an organization that raised funds for cancer patients while I was an undergrad in college is what helped me cope with my mother’s cancer. This, along with my own survivorship journey is whats inspired me to start this organization.

-Patricia, Founder and President of Thytabono