Talking to my Peeps

I’ve been talking to a lot of people I’ve met through the BRCA online communities and through my surgeon’s office. I’ve had phone calls, emails, and chats with brave women who have undergone preventative mastectomies. They have been so nice in sharing their time with me, some spending over an hour with me on the phone answering my questions. As important as evidence based research is, nothing beats talking to someone who has gone through what you are about to. Thanks to the Funk Buddies program, the Pink Pal program, BRCA Umbrella, FORCE, and BRCA Sisterhood.

Summer Telly

I already watch a ton of guilty pleasure TV (aka all things Bravo, Teen Mom, KUWTK), but I know my TV binging is going to go up a notch when I’m recovering. My brain will most likely be in a bit of a fog and I’ll be stuck in the house, so I’m happy that shows Big Brother and Botched will be on to help me recuperate. I’m also looking forward to catching up on some smart shows like The Big Bang Theory and Nurse Jackie and starting some new shows like The Good Wife. My mom shares my love of television, and recently sent me this LA Times editorial which really spoke to me. Check it out here.

Dancing Machine

People who know me well know that I love dancing. I try to go to Zumba or Cardio Pop classes when I have time and I’m always bustin’ a move at home whenever I have the chance. I’m not going to be able to shimmy for a while after my mastectomy so I’m trying to get in my fun dance classes now. One of my favorite dancers is Ciara so I’m sharing one of her most bada$$ videos below.

Puttin Out the Energy

My friends and family have been asking me a lot more questions about my mastectomy – which I’m really happy about. A big part of the reason I went public with my journey was to educate others about BRCA and being proactive about your health.

Today, one of my friends told me that I was the only person he had met who was excited about having a mastectomy. The truth is, I am scared as sh*t about the actual surgery and recovery, but he was right that I am weirdly excited about it.  I’m really really looking forward to having it be in the rear view mirror. I’m excited because my breasts kind of feel like ticking time bombs at this point and I’m eager to lower my breast cancer risk so much. Thankful that medical technology is as incredible as it is. Thinking about how lucky I am that the BRCA test even exists, if my grandmother or great aunts had these options, maybe they would still be alive.  Pumped up about having some fun celebrations before the big surgery. Feeling humbled by the offers to come over and help during my recovery, receiving thoughtful recovery gifts, and friends offering to stock our pantry up with snacks for my hubby while he’s taking care of me.

It seems odd that I could be excited right now, but I’m focusing on the end-game of no more anxiety provoking mammograms or breast MRIs and going from an 87% lifetime risk of breast cancer to around 1%. I also choose to be positive instead of worrying too much because I’m a big believer in the power of positive thinking and energy. I’ve been getting so much positivity from my friends, family, and online community and I’m just so thankful. And to quote one of the greatest shows ever….

golden

 

We Are Family

I hope everyone had a great Independence Day weekend! Adam and I were in Seattle this weekend for his cousin’s wedding. It was an incredible weekend. The rehearsal dinner was at the Chihuly art museum, we watched fireworks from The Space Needle, and the wedding was in a gorgeous setting at Union Station. It was a beautiful ceremony, super fun reception, and great weekend in Seattle.

It was also the first time I had seen a lot of our family from the East Coast since starting the blog. It was really nice to hear from a lot of my cousins who are reading the blog regularly and who were all really supportive of my decision. They asked me a lot of great questions and reassured me that everything would be okay. Reaching people with my blog and educating them about the BRCA gene and cancer prevention was the reason I went public with my journey, and it’s always great to hear that people are reading.

 

1, 2 Step

Before I start, let me just say how happy I am to have a post titled after a Ciara song :). Anyhoo, I’ve been joining more online forums for people with BRCA mutations. It has opened up a way for me to speak to tons of people around the world online to ask questions and do research, which is pretty cool.

When I went to the FORCE conference, I met some women who had reconstruction with the direct to implant (1-step) option as well as the tissue expander (2-step) option. 1-step is when an implant is placed in at the time of the mastectomy. 2-step is when tissue expanders are placed in during the mastectomy and they are slowly filled with saline each week, and then swapped out for implants in a second surgery around 3 months later.

Part of the reason I chose the 2 step option is because of how often I’ve heard of 1-step actually resulting in multiple surgeries. Also, there can be issues with blood flow when the 1-step is performed. I’ve also heard about how uncomfortable the expanders can be (check out my post on that here).  Both my breast and reconstructive surgeons said I was a candidate for 1-step, but I didn’t go into too much detail about it with them because of the blood flow issues.

Now that I’ve met more women who have had the 1-step direct to implant surgery, I am interested in talking to my surgeon about it in more depth. Not only have I met these women, but many of them showed me their results at the FORCE conference “show-and-tell” session. A lot of the 1-step breasts I saw and felt appeared natural and had great results with only one surgery. I also posted about this choice on one of the online forums and had many women respond with great feedback and photo results from the 1-step. I called my reconstructive surgeon and her amazing assistant talked to me about both options and scheduled an appointment for me to speak to my surgeon about both options again in more depth. I’m thankful to have such a great medical team behind me.

I’ll keep everyone posted on how that consult goes (on July 21), but it does help me feel less stressed knowing I have fully researched all of my options.

Getting Closer

As the date approaches for my mastectomy (Aug 26th), time is becoming my best friend and worst enemy. The more time I have, the more research I’m able to do. For me, this is awesome because I am connecting with more and more previvors.  I’m able to ask lots of questions and everyone has been so open and helpful with answers. People have even sent me photos of their results.  It’s great to have this type of community.

Time is also my enemy because I am getting more eager each day to have the surgery behind me. I’m definitely thinking about the surgery a lot and trying to put all my positive energy into visualizing a quick recovery, successful surgery, and clean pathology.  Good thing I have two 12 hour shifts two days in a row this quarter, which helps the weeks go by more quickly and helps me focus on helping my patients.