Our friends at DearThyroid are making thyroid awareness bracelets available for free, as a way to commemorate Thyroid Awareness Month 2010. Find out more about how to get your awareness bracelet at the DearThyroid site. (NOTE: So many people have emailed that some of the boxes have gotten full. If you're having trouble emailing DearThyroid founder Katie Schwartz for your bracelet, try emailing her at this address or this one.)
Photo: DearThyroid.com
This is the first time I have ever seen this site. I will be getting my bracelet, and I am ordering a tee shirt. They are so cute. I will wear it with pride. Thank you so much.
The link to email Katie on the DearThyroid.org
website does not work. Is there an email where
we can contact Katie to request a thyroid awareness bracelet?
The link to Katie for a free bracelet does not work
It says that Katie’s mailbox is full, is there another contact?
I tried, too, but I got this message:
The e-mail message could not be delivered because the user’s mailfolder is full.
The link for Dear Thyroid that we are directed to contains unnecessary profanity. I will pass on the bracelet.
I got that message as well when I signed up for my bracelet. This was before I read that website. I was astounded at the profanity on several different posts. I’m with Trish.
NOTE: So many people have emailed that some of the boxes have gotten full. If you’re having trouble emailing DearThyroid founder Katie Schwartz for your bracelet, try emailing her at this address or this one.
If you went to the same website that I went to – I was totally disgusted by it. It was like reading stuff on a porn site or something. Heck with the bracelet. Please in the future direct me to trashy sites like that.
Hi. Thanks for the free awareness offer. There should have been a posted warning’ about their site. Some would easily be offended by the ‘pin-up’ girls and the very blunt comments under them …
I agree about the profanity. I would have thought the sight would block and not allow stuff like that on it. You should protray descensy about a serious topic.
Language on the site pathetic,,vulgar, would love the bracelet, but couldn’t find the way to the contact them
I live over the pond in London & got through ! be patient
My wife was misdiagnosed in 1996, properly diagnosed in ‘97, and has suffered through everything imaginable with thyroid disease, and people are offended by a web-site? I am offended by the total lack of respect, knowledge, concern most doctors, insurance companies, governments, etc. have! Let’s treat AIDs patients like Thyroid patients and see the stuff hit the fan!
My name is Katie Schwartz. I am the Founder of Dear Thyroid. I have read each of your comments and would like an opportunity to respond. I would appreciate it if you read this in its entirety and thank you.
Dear Thyroid is a literary thyroid support website, written by and for patients with thyroid diseases and thyroid cancers. Patients write love and hate letters to their thyroids, among other literary things. Each letter that a patient writes is a gift. They bleed onto the page, courage, wit, anger, sadness and candor. We do not censor what one might consider unsavory language. Thyroid diseases and thyroid cancers are HORRIFIC; they ravage our minds, bodies and souls. In my opinion, we should embrace every incantation of the human condition. If we don’t allow ourselves the right to feel as irate and overwhelmingly heartbroken as we do, how are we going to heal?
We have chosen to pair each letter with iconic images of beautiful women for a few reasons. First, in some small way, they represent our former selves; they are vibrant, healthy and full of life. Second, they are a reminder that even though our diseases might make us feel ugly, we aren’t; we are exquisite, regardless of how transformed we’ve become by our diseases. Finally, they are a call to action.
While we disagree about what’s ‘appropriate’ and what’s not appropriate, know this; every single individual, myself included, involved in Dear Thyroid is a thyroid patient. We take this disease VERY SERIOUSLY.
Thanks for listening. Please feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions about Dear Thyroid.
Sincerely,
Katie Schwartz
I feel compelled to respond as well. I have only recently joined the community of Dear Thyroid a few short months ago. I was scared, bitter, angry, and alone–and like many thyroid patients had been misdiagnosed before eventually beginning proper treatment. It is an understatement to say that I stumbled upon the site during a very pointedly angry phase in my life.
It started with me writing a letter. And I spewed some venom and vitriol in very colorful language onto the page, which Katie Schwartz graciously printed without censoring my language, and therefore, my feelings. Getting that out of me and onto the page allowed me to let go of that rage, and begin to heal my mind as well as my thyroid.
It didn’t take long for me to contact Katie to find out how I could be a part of the Dear Thyroid community, in any way that I could help. Together, Katie and I launched a forum page for thyroid patients and their loved ones to connect and talk in real time. We will not censor the language on this site either, for the same reasons the Dear Thyroid letters are not censored. Just 2 weeks ago, Katie added a weekly column which I write, investigating and discussing health care issues with the goal of improving our lives–because knowledge is power.
I realize that Dear Thyroid cannot be all things to all people. And while the intent is not to offend anyone, I hope you will all understand that when we let writers choose their own words, we can empower them to heal themselves. I would encourage you all to look a little closer, you may find something you like.
Thanks,
Robyn Hahn, Editor-in-chief Health Care and Forum Manager
Dear Thyroid
(PS. I have never been offended by the kitschy pin-up girls pictured on our pages–in fact they make me giggle, take me to a simpler time in the world, and make me feel beautiful)
Hi, I have to agree with Larry above. I think the site is Great! I can’t wait to get my bracelet…if only I could remember to ask for it! (Darn that thyroid of mine! lol)
“Thankyou” sincerely to all of you who continue to hang in there and advocate for us…we are in this thing together!! : D
I understand how some people do not like the colorful language some use on Dear Thyroid. That is your right. It is also the right of those that write on Dear Thyroid to express themselves as they like. These are letters from the soul and the heart. They are not to disrespect anyone or the disease. Those of us that write on Dear Thyroid take this disease very seriously.
Those that write on Dear Thyroid are probably doing more to bring awareness to the public then the people complaining of the language used. We are not hiding how we feel about this disease. If you see me wearing the bracelet you may not want to know me. I have been known to use colorful language.
After reading through all these comments, I feel like the energy put into arguing with each other is energy wasted… and when it comes down to it.. it’s about raising thyroid cancer awareness.. and not necessarily about having to walk on eggshells or anything like that… it’s just about beating this darn thing.