Surgery

Back in November I finally got in to meet with a genetic counselor.  I had been thinking about getting tested for a couple years and for whatever reason it just wasn't working out.  After being able to have all the kids in school a couple days a week, I finally made it happen. 

I reached out to a friend who is a nurse at the cancer center hear in Longmont and she talked to the counselor there and came back and told me with my family history I should definitely meet with her.

She was booked solid for almost 3 months, but was able to get in on 11/26.  I met her and we decided how many of the genes I should test, I did the most common for people with my history and test 43.  I was told it took 3 weeks to come back with results, so 12/18 was my appt to hear everything.  You may wonder why the dates mean anything, and to everyone else they don't but the 26th is the day my sister died and the 18th is her birthday and one other fact, my counselors name is Brianna!  I obviously knew these were all signs from her and that I was doing the right thing:)

So I went in and was told everything was perfect except for 1 thing - I had a variance of unknown significance on the BRCA1 gene - most people call this the breast cancer gene.  So while this isn't a true mutation on the gene, there is no way to know what this means for the future. 

After sitting on this for 2 months I decided to take the next step and meet with the oncologist.  He basically told me that, right now, scientists don't know what the variance on the gene means, but they could come out tomorrow and say, well ya, it looks as if people with this in "so many cases" do end up getting breast cancer.  With the genetics and the family history of breast cancer - both maternal and paternal grandmothers, my mom and my first cousin, I would be put on a high risk protocol.  This means mammograms 1 a year forever, MRI once a year forever and yearly blood tests.  So I just flat out said to the oncologist - but what if I want to do the surgery?  I think he was a little taken aback with it, but fully supported it.  I honestly have thought for 10 years since my mom was diagnosed that after I was done having kids, I would just do the surgery prophylactically. 

The oncologist was amazing - he was able to put the orders in for both the mammogram and MRI and send me to the breast surgeon.  I got back the results of both tests before I was finally able to get in to the surgeon on 4/4. The mammogram was normal except I was told I have extremely dense tissue - a factor that could mean early cancer is very hard to detect, and the MRI was also clear except for a couple cysts - again a factor that could eventually lead to cancer.

I met with the surgeon and she was fantastic, she is also a mom of little kids and knew exactly where I was coming from when I said I wanted to just have it done instead of all the monitoring.  She agreed I was making the right decision and said she would absolutely do the same thing as me.  I left that appointment thinking the surgery would be May 1st, I needed to meet with the plastic surgeon she works with for the reconstruction and they needed to find a date their schedules would match. I was able to get in with the second surgeon on 4/18.  The next day the plastic surgeon called me and asked me if I could come in that day, luckily I could.  So after meeting with him I was told my surgery was scheduled for 4/17 - just 12 days after I met with the first surgeon.  I was thrilled.  I really wanted to be feeling much better before the kids were out of school for the summer.  The next week was a whirlwind of getting things set up for the kids while I would be out for the surgery and the recovery.

In no time it was the day before, I went in to the office and got all marked up, it was a little scary. With such a short amount of time knowing when it would be scheduled to when I had it, I really didn't have time to get anxious about it.

But when I saw this, it hit me all at once.

I met with a friend for coffee the morning before and she gave me this sweet card, it calmed my nerves for sure

I was set to start my surgery at 12 so had to me at the hospital at 10:30, it was good and bad, I was able to take all the kids to school which was really nice since that wouldn't be happening for awhile after, but it also would have been nice to just wake up and go and not have to think about for so many hours.

Once I got there, it went by so fast.  I met with all the doctors, their assistants and quite a few nurses.  Before I knew it they were taking me back and I was asleep.

And then again, before I knew it I was in my room for the night.  The surgery went very well Clint was told, it only took 5 and a half hours when they thought it would be a minimum of 6. 

When I got to my room, my mom and Clint were both there, I guess I was in the recovery room for about an hour before I was moved upstairs but don't remember that at all. 

I honestly was feeling pretty good.  I told all the doctors that literally everything makes me nauseous and they gave me IV meds during the surgery, a patch and a shot right before I woke up and I never felt sick at all, it was great, that was one of the parts I was most anxious about.

The morning after, so swollen from being on an IV for so long, but feeling pretty good and happy to have it done!

I was completely spoiled by my friends with flowers and goodies and dinners - we had dinners brought to us nightly for almost an entire 6 weeks. 

I am happy to say everything went wonderful recovery wise and all the lab work done on the tissue taken was completely normal!!

Also a special treat while my parents were here for the surgery - my dad redid all the backsplash in our kitchen, something I had wanted done since we moved in 10 years ago!!

He had some great helpers too!!