✨I discovered running in 2018 about six months before my thyroid cancer diagnosis. I had been working out regularly for years, but running was a whole new challenge, and I’m so glad I found it when I did. After numerous ultrasounds and biopsies that came back inconclusive for nodules on my thyroid, I opted to have a total thyroidectomy in March 2019. At the time, they told me I only had a 30 percent chance of it being cancer. Ten days later, my surgeon called to tell me I had follicular thyroid cancer. That moment was surreal. I was still recovering from surgery and couldn’t believe what I’d been told. As subsequent months passed and I went through surgery recovery, medication withdrawal, the low iodine diet and radioactive iodine ablation, running is what kept me going. I will admit that it took me a long time to get back to regular running, and I’m still not where I was in the months before my surgery and cancer diagnosis, but the consistency of running, the relationships I’ve built, the stress relief, and what I’ve seen my body be able to do over the last two years has been so encouraging. I ran my first 10k last fall and hope to do a half marathon in 2021! ✨
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Thank you Rachel for taking the time to join us this evening and share your thyroid cancer journey & how you found running at just the right time!