Every year since 2019 I have found a new gift from my deceased parents. My parents both died before their 60th birthday and while that has caused a lot of therapy it is no shock to me that I am an immunocompromised butterfly.

If you are curious about my health journey you can look at my CaringBridge website. My latest diagnosis is probably the most annoying one. Annoying because it is one that will cause me a lifetime of issues because there is no cure. On Monday, I was diagnosed with chronic autoimmune thyroiditis or Hashimoto’s disease. I’m not sure why I feel the need to share this, the whole reason I started this blog was to process my thoughts. I started having serious symptoms over the last month and got a little worried that it was getting serious. It is nice to have a diagnosis, but I am not a fan of being on medication for the rest of my life.

I have never been someone to be sad about any of my health issues, I take the time to celebrate that I get to spend so much time with some very smart physicians and doctors, I try to make them laugh because I know they are often delivering bad news and sometimes they are delivering it to me. For example, before my gallbladder surgery, they kept apologizing for the room being a little cold, the pain of the IV, not being able to eat for like 12 hours. I joked that this wasn’t the spa experience that I signed up for. I kept mentioning that they promised a sauna and foot massages, it kept the room light and I think it eased some of my fears of the day. Laughter is not the best medicine, and I’m not very funny, but there it is beneficial.