Embracing Good News

On By Laura Tovey

On February 25th, I received my 1-year scan results that showed no thyroid cancer cells remaining anywhere in my body. Pair that with my blood work which revealed “undetectable traces of disease”, I went from an active cancer patient to a woman in in remission just like that! Hallelujah!

Sharing this good news was one of the best moments ever. Friends called me crying with happy tears. My brother FaceTimed me from the Philippines. Cancer friends celebrated me from afar. My church group praised God with me. And my family and best friend ate cake and drank champagne with me that night while I rang the bell and danced.

There was a time when I honestly thought that I would never go a day without being afraid for my health. I was afraid that even if I received clean scans, I still wouldn’t believe that I was in the clear.

However the more and more normal doctors appointments I have, the quieter that fear gets. The little voice in my head that taunts me with “this is just the beginning” is shut down by the “everything came back normal” responses from my trusted doctors.

I am going to keep working on believing this new narrative: the one where cancer is forever gone from my body and that thyroid cancer is the only cancer I’ll ever have to face. While this is nothing that can ever be guaranteed, it’s much less exhausting to imagine this reality than my anxiety-inducing visions of flagged scans and radioactive pills.

I took a few months off blog writing to simply soak up the good news without rehashing the bad memories. I still have quite a few entries that I’ve written over the past year and I will continue to share glimpses of this journey throughout the next couple months.

I am going to try to keep them as unedited as possible, so the upcoming posts may not contain as much optimism as this one as they were written without the reassuring knowledge that I have now.

I don’t know what the future holds for me, but today I am choosing to embrace good news and let go of fearing things that I cannot control. ❤️

9 thoughts on “Embracing Good News”

  2. Unknown's avatar Anonymous

    Laura, I am rejoicing with you! Praise God for the wonderful news from your scans and blood test. The best of all is God‘s faithfulness in a very difficult situation that is completely out of your control, knowing He loves you and is by your side. Learning firsthand what it really means to say, “His grace is sufficient.” You have blessed my life, Betsy❤️

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  3. Tracey Simpson's avatar Tracey Simpson

    Congratulations, that is wonderful news for you! I was diagnosed with both thyroid and kidney cancers last year (Aug), 3 weeks apart. My thyroid was caught early and I have an excellent prognosis, just have to wait for me scan 9 months after my RAI, which I just had. My kidney cancer was also caught early, and my 6 month scans 3 weeks ago showed no sign of kidney cancer remaining. While I should be celebrating and enjoying that news, I can’t. I can’t be happy and I’m still worrying as much as ever. I need to try to find the good in it all as I am going to be ok. But it’s so hard mentally. You are doing wonderful to be in that place mentally already, and I need to learn from you to get there too. Our thyroid journeys have been similar so I’ve enjoyed reading your blogs as I was going through it all. Thank you for sharing your experience and helping others.

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    1. Thank you so much, Tracey! It’s been a long road.. and there are still ups and downs. I’m so sorry to hear that you’ve been going through kidney cancer as well.. how overwhelming! So glad to hear that everything is under control, but I definitely understand the hesitant joy. Be gentle with yourself and know that one day you’ll be in a better headspace. Hang in there 💗

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