Hi Shellbell68, 

It's normal to feel lost after everything you've been through and finding out last year that the cancer had started to grow in your thyroid bed. It must have been so hard to have had to retire from work in February due to vocal cord damage and to have suffered anxiety attacks and severe fatigue. Try if you can not to look at any stats as these are just averages and are definitely not indicative of what will happen in your particular case so it's best not to pay attention to these too much. The anxiety can get overwhelming though and it's important not to suffer alone with these dark thoughts and perhaps you could talk to your GP about how you have been feeling and see if they have any suggestions to help you during this very stressful time. 

It's great that you are going to a Maggie's in Manchester and I hope that you have found it a supportive and welcoming environment. I hope that you will get to talk to others on here who have been diagnosed with metastatic follicular thyroid cancer. Sometimes it is hard to talk to friends and family about all this and this is why the forum is a safe space to meet others who find themselves in the same boat and you may live miles away and never have seen each other but you do share something important that you can't talk to many other people about: a similar diagnosis and crucially a mutual understanding of how this diagnosis affects you physically and emotionally. 

I hope that you will hear from others on here who have had this diagnosis and for whom it also spread and that you can support one another during these difficult times. 

Best wishes, 

Lucie, Cancer Chat Moderator