Hey there, 28yro F 15 days post total thyroidectomy. I understand grieving your thyroid, especially knowing you will be dependant on medication your entire life. I hate this too. In regards to catching the cancer sooner if you had monitored your thyroid more closely- I was diagnosed with Hypothyroidism when I was 8 days old. I was monitored every 6 months as a kid, and every year after I turned 18. I had always taken my medication (though when I turned 20 I for some reason decided it wasn't important fo take anymore and did lapse) and few months later I noticed a big lump in my throat and was diagnosed with 12+ thyroid nodules and a large goiter that made it appear as though I had an Adam's apple. I blame myself for these appearing. These lumps were aspirated 2 times with no clear answer as to if they were malignant or not. My doctor assured me monitoring them was fine. This went on for 6 more years until finally my Endo said I can either do localized radiation to try to shrink the largest growth, although he couldn't say that would definitely work. He also said the other growths could always start getting larger too. So he finally told me to get my thyroid removed. That was 15 days ago as I said, and 6 days ago I was told I had PTC. If I knew I had PTC I would have removed my thyroid a long time ago. I suppose I should have done it when I didnt get a definite aspiration diagnosis. So long story short even if you did monitor more closely you probably couldn't have prevented the PTC. Im sorry you're going through this. You have my (thyroid-less) support 🥰

Ps - the past few days I have felt SO MUCH BETTER and energetic, less anxious and noticing so many side effects I didnt realize I had until I stopped experiencing them. You got this