CNN iReport

Last December, soon after I turned twenty-two, I went to have a routine physical exam.  As far as I knew, everything was fine.  The doctor did his poking around, shining his light in my ears, testing my reflexes, nodding and making notes in my file.  Then, as he was checking down my neck, he paused.  "Huh," he said.  "There seems to be a lump on your thyroid."

"What does that mean?"

"Probably nothing.  Thyroid nodules are very common.  You should have an ultrasound, if it looks suspicious they'll do a biopsy, but most people who have thyroid nodules don't have any problems resulting from them."

"Oh."

Ultrasounds are easy.  I have a long medical history.  There are few parts of myself that I haven't seen on x-ray, ultrasound or MRI.  I decided that I would just add the thyroid to that list.

Little did I know that my well checkup would turn into months of medical care.  The nodule, while thought to be benign, was large enough that it needed to be removed, just as a precaution.

It should have been a routine surgery, in and out on the same day.  Unfortunately, there were complications.  I ended up aspirating, and my lungs were temporarily reduced to about a tenth of their normal capacity.  My blood pressure dropped just after that.  It took hours to get me stable enough to move after that "easy" surgery, and I was in the hospital for 2 nights on oxygen before I was allowed to go home.

Several days later, I got a call from my surgeon.  The tumor, she said, is cancer.  The other side of my thyroid had to come out.

Two weeks after the first surgery, I was back in the operating room.  This time, they took extra precautions to make sure the same thing didn't happen twice.  The second time was the charm, apparently, since things went smoothly and I walked out of the hospital the next morning feeling just as alive as I had the day before.

A few months after the surgeries, I was treated with radioactive iodine to remove whatever was left of the thyroid tissue.  They told me all along that thyroid cancer is the good kind--it's the one you want to get if you have to have cancer, they said.  Thanks, but I'm only twenty-two, i said.  I'd rather not have any cancer at all.

And it turns out that thyroid cancer is not uncommon in young women.  I have always been a biology nut, I keep up with health news and the latest breakthrough in treatment for this disease or that.  I consider myself to be pretty well-informed about common health issues.  But I never knew that thyroid cancer was something I would have to watch out for.

There are, I grant you, many more serious diseases out there, especially in the cancer world.  The danger in thyroid cancer lies in the fact that if it isn't caught, it can become aggressive and dangerous.  I met one young woman who was in her thirties.  Her tumor had become so large it had extended under her collarbone.  Removing it would require extremely invasive surgery--none of which would have been necessary if she had known the importance of getting her neck prodded once a year.

Having cancer at any age is scary, but with something as treatable as thyroid cancer, prevention is crucial.  Be aware of breast cancer.  Be aware of ovarian cancer.  But to all women of all ages, please don't forget to have your doctor feel your neck.  Most people I have spoken to about my thyroid cancer have responded, "I know someone who had thyroid cancer."  It is out there.  It is common.  Be aware of it, and stay healthy.