It was during a routine ultrasound to check my Carotid Arteries when the Radiation technician stopped, sighed, and said to me, “I’m probably going to lose my job over this, but I’m taking scans of your Thyroid and sending them to your doctor, immediately.” From then on, everything became a blur of doctor appointments, biopsies, and then the diagnosis – Papillary Carcinoma.

Then it was surgeries and treatments.

On one of my really bad days, my amazing husband came home with a gift for me. It was the ‘Winnie the Pooh’ movie along with a stuffed Tigger! He knew I had just finished reading the ‘Last Lecture’ by Randy Pausch. One of my favorite passages is when he says, “…we all have the choice every day to be either an Eeyore or to be a Tigger. I choose to be a Tigger.” I looked into my husband eyes, and he said to me “Because I know you’ll always choose to be a Tigger!”

That small conversation set the foundation for how we, as a team, would face whatever would come. And years later, when I heard “I’m sorry, but it is malignant cancer.” I knew I would always choose to be Tigger!

I’m not sure whatever happened to that amazing angel of a Radiation technician, but how do you thank someone for saving your life? No words seemed appropriate, so I brought her a dozen white roses, and I hugged her in tears and said: “Thank you.”