THYROID PROTECTION FOR PATIENTS AND MEDICAL STAFF
THE IMPORTANCE OF PROTECTING YOUR THYROID
Amara Allen is a real person (only the name is changed to protect the patient; everything else in the story is real and true) who lives in the southeast corner of Idaho, a state that is bordered by Canada, Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming and Montana. It is a great, quiet, sleepy place to live and grow up in. She is 28 years old and has lived a quite “ordinary” life, filled with family, friends, a significant other and a lot of laughter, fun and tears. Mostly, the tears have come in the past three years, after her devastating diagnosis of advanced thyroid cancer. The diagnosis came with absolutely no warning. One evening, while visiting with friends, one of the friends was shocked to see what looked to be an egg sized shape and sized lump in Amara’s neck. Amara ran to the bathroom mirror and was horrified at what she saw. It had not been visible until that very evening. The next day, she called her doctor and was brought in for tests and within two weeks she had the diagnosis. One month later, she had a radical surgery that removed her entire thyroid gland and has been fighting the effects of losing her thyroid and battling the “leftover” cancer cells since that night of the discovery of the cancer.