Thyroid Cancer Awareness!

Wow! Where has time gone. I can't believe it's been eight weeks since my surgery. A lot has happened since then. One of the things that has been brought to my attention a lot these last couple weeks is the unexpected death of the beloved L Tom Perry. Some of my readers, if they haven't guessed already, may not know that I'm apart of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Elder L. Tom Perry was a member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles and was an amazing man.
https://www.lds.org/prophets-and-apostles/biographies/elder-l-tom-perry?lang=eng

Just before I went in for surgery back in April the church announced that he had been diagnosed with Thyroid Cancer. Once that happened I became aware of my diagnosis more and more as people would bring it to my attention.

Many conversations would go as follows:
"What kind of cancer do you have?"
"Thyroid Cancer"
"Isn't that what L Tom Perry has?"
"Yep."

They would then proceed to ask several questions about it and about treatment. Many more people became very aware of this disease. Each time the church came out with an update on his condition I would have more questions and more people wanting to know what Thyroid cancer was. I would do my best to explain to them what my experience has been. As all cancers it's silent and slow to manifest itself.

Once the news of this beloved apostle had passed away of this aggressive cancer known as Thyroid cancer, in the case of L Tom Perry, I had an overwhelming amount of people become more concerned about me. I had more people ask me if I was concerned about death from this cancer. The answer is OF COURSE the fear is always there for anyone who has been diagnosed of any type of cancer. That fear is real and can either push you to do more in your life or paralyze you to only focus on death. It's a matter of choice for everyone in fact. We should all take each day and live it to the fullest, do all you can to enjoy life. No matter what your circumstances are you never know when your last day will be here on earth.

Our Heavenly Father's plan for us is to have joy, what are we waiting for? We can't control our circumstances most of the time but what we can control is our reaction or attitude of the circumstances we are given. Remember it is "ok" to be sad and unhappy, but also remember there is joy in each trial. President Thomas S Monson said, "This is our one and only chance at mortal life—here and now. The longer we live, the greater is our realization that it is brief. Opportunities come, and then they are gone. I believe that among the greatest lessons we are to learn in this short sojourn upon the earth are lessons that help us distinguish between what is important and what is not. I plead with you not to let those most important things pass you by as you plan for that illusive and nonexistent future when you will have time to do all that you want to do. Instead, find joy in the journey—now." What a great reminder that we all must find joy in this journey of life.

I know that the Savior loves each of us and no matter who we are or what we are facing let us all remember to show each other kindness and love. This is a life of joy. I have had many days where I lost this focus and found sadness and depression as my focus; however, as I refocus my life to the reason we are here I find that there are many good things in this life that I've missed out on by focusing on the wrong thing. I hope to continue to find joy in this journey of troubling times.