Today is Rare Disease Day. Today folks around the World are raising awareness about people like me, having Hurthle Cell Carcinoma.
This Cancer is extremely difficult to learn about because there are so few patients that have and survive the disease due to it's aggressive nature. It often metastases prior to being found, removed, and treated.I was an extremely lucky person. If I had delayed at all I very likely would have seen stage four in a matter of another month. From the first day of having a lump in my throat to actually removing it in surgery was only one month. My tumor was 2.5cm and stage 2.
The World Health Organization states that HCC occurs in only 3% of all thyroid cancers (http://www.oncolink.org/types/article.cfm?c=7&s=26&ss=770&id=9607).
This disease is so rare that in a study done by the National Cancer Data Base (NCDB) reported of “53,856 cases of thyroid carcinoma treated in the U.S., 1985-1995" only 1,585 cases were Hurthle Cell Carcinoma (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/(SICI)1097-0142(19981215)83:12%3C2638::AID-CNCR31%3E3.0.CO;2-1/full).
I am here because of a nurse that listened, because of a doctor that looked, because of a surgeon that shared his time, because of a oncologist that cared, because of a family that loved, because of friends that supported, because of Christians that prayed and because God made it all happen. So, because I am blessed to be living. And this Leap Day, I have chance to tell you to CHECK YOUR NECK!!!
