Last November I was contacted by a journalism student attending Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. She was working on a paper about BRCA gene mutation testing, the monopolies held by two genetic testing companies and the recent controversial rulings on patents. She also wanted to include some thoughts and insights from a person directly influenced …
Hereditary cancer
Last week I had my first follow-up appointment with my oncologist. A weird way to look at it is if I’m really lucky, it will be the first of many. While I did experience familiar nervous moments of apprehension and anxiety before entering the now all too familiar hospital/clinic, I was struck by how calm …
After a cancer diagnosis, then what? When you first receive a cancer diagnosis, you likely feel overwhelmed by the number of appointments you suddenly need to schedule and show up at, the questions you have with no certain answers, what your treatment course might be like and the general feeling of loss of control over …
Four years ago I traveled to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota to meet with a geneticist to help my family decide if my mother should be tested for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations. Too many red flags “screaming suspicion” had been raised. Other members of my family were there as well. We crammed our folding …
Three days after my diagnostic mammogram, Dear Hubby and I met with Surgeon #1 for preliminary discussion about the results. With a serious expression on his face, the surgeon rated my newly discovered mass a 5 on the “suspicious scale” of 1-5. This rating was due to the lump’s size and my family history.