When I was 23, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 47. So, breast cancer isn't new to our family. When my mom went through her journey with cancer, the doctors wanted my sister and me to be tested for the BRCA gene mutation that they had found my mom had. Back then it was a newer thing to know of you had the mutation. At 23 and 21 years old, my sister and I didn't think we needed to know if we were positive for it. I mean, there was only a 50/50 chance that either of us could have it. We asked what they would do differently, and they said they would watch us carefully and once we were finished having kids they would discuss mastectomies and hysterectomies. Seriously, that's a lot to process at 23. Plus, I'm a just live life kind of person....everything happens for a reason kind of girl. Neither of us were tested....
Last October, my sister was diagnosed with breast cancer. My, at the time, 28 year old sister! I was 30. Talk about your world being turned upside down! Your very best friend has a disease that you never thought could show up....at least not this early. And I was MAD because guess what?!She had JUST had her 2nd baby.
The day after we found out she had breast cancer, my mom had her annual checkup with her oncologist. We told her about my sister and I kind of lost it....ok I really lost it. I reminded her that she had told us they'd wait to do anything until we'd had kids and she had just had her baby....I kept asking her what she would've done differently if we had had the test because there was not wait time between my sister having her baby and finding the cancer.
Before we left that day, I was tested to see if I had the BRCA mutation. I honestly wasn't worried about it. Knowing there was a 50/50 chance of having it, my sister and I had always assumed that if one of us had it the other one wouldn't, which was another reason we never had the test done. So since she had it, I just felt like I wouldn't. That was October 4, 2012.
About 4-5 weeks later, I was sitting in the teacher's lounge at lunch. My phone rang and I answered it because it was the oncologist. I'm expecting her to say I'm negative for the BRCA mutation. Instead, she tells me that my test came back positive and I need to get scheduled for a mastectomy ASAP. I told her I needed to think and talk with my family because that's a huge decision to make. Inching up the phone bawling.....I NEVER thought I would be BRCA1 positive. I'm not married. I don't have kids, and the doctor is telling me get my boobs cut off ASAP.....how do you process all of that.
I talked to the 3 most important people to me about what to do. All 3 agreed I needed to do it. I still wasn't 100% settled on the decision. I prayed about it for 2 nights. On the second night, after I prayed, I was almost asleep when I heard a voice that I swear to this day was my grandmother. It said "there is no other option." My decision was made at that moment. I had total peace about my decision and knew that having a preventative mastectomy was what I needed to do.
Upcoming blogs:
*My journey to having a preventative mastectomy
*Surgery: the first step
*Was it worth it?
Stayed tuned!
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