I had a pre-set appointment to get my results. Kaiser has you come in and meet with both the genetic counselor and genetic psychiatrist at the same time to get your results whether or not they are positive or negative. At the time, I thought this was all pretty unnecessary, but looking back I'm really impressed at the way Kaiser handles these situation.
My husband came with me and they delivered the news. I tested positive for the BRCA 1 gene mutation. I instantly broke into tears. If this is what I had been expecting, why did this hit me like a punch to the gut? I think you can just never be fully prepared for life altering news. No, it wasn't a death sentence. I didn't have cancer yet...but my odds didn't look good. I'm 29. Newlywed 29 year old women should be deciding what kind of curtains to put up in their homes or figuring out whether they want to kids sooner rather than later. Now I was faced with the decision of a lifetime of monitoring and praying or a mastectomy and possibly removing my ovaries.
I know I sound pretty self-pitying at this point. I should have just been happy that I had the tools to make informed decisions and I was. I didn't have cancer, I was lucky. But still, my whole life would be different now. I was mourning the loss of my future as I had envisioned it. My advice to you women who are going through this: give yourself time to grieve. We cry over broken relationships, why not cry over this? Set an amount of time, stay in your pjs, eat junk food, and cry. Then pick yourself up and do what needs to be done.
No comments:
Post a Comment