I’m part of a lot of BRCA communities, both online and in-person. They have been a great resource for me to research before my mastectomy and also to ask questions afterwards. One of the young women in an online BRCA group had a prophylactic mastectomy last week due to her BRCA mutation. She had her last mammogram 6 weeks ago and it came back clean. Well, she just got her pathology results back (during a preventative mastectomy they take tissue samples to make sure everything is cancer-free). Sadly, it turns out she has breast cancer. Luckily her surgeon got clean margins, so now she has to go in for a second surgery next week to remove lymph nodes and see if the cancer spread or if they caught it in time.

She has a great attitude, and is happy she had the preventative surgery when she did, because waiting even 6 months could have had a far worse outcome. She is hopeful that it hasn’t spread and she can avoid chemo. Hearing her story makes me even more thankful that science has come so far that there’s a screening for BRCA mutations and also there is an option for prophylactic mastectomies. I am also very very thankful my pathology came back clear and I chose to have the surgery at age 30, right as my breast cancer risk really started to climb.