Just One More- Post 2

Welcome back, my gene warriors! I hope my last post left you with a few answers but, most importantly, a starting point for some research. Last week, I covered five different topics, so I thought I would spend more time and focus on just two for this week. I felt that the pair of concepts I want to begin with would be most appropriate because they correlate even though you don’t experience them at the same time during the BRCA2 journey. To recap, I am a gene carrier and a survivor of Breast Cancer, which is one of the elevated risks due to the gene, but I am also a survivor of Thyroid Cancer, which has not been linked to the gene.

With that being said; this week, I want to talk to you about:

• Coping with the news of having both Cancer and being a gene carrier.

• How the BRCA2 gene affected my decisions in future prevention.

What was it like when you found out? I found out three significant things about me at three different times: I had Thyroid Cancer, I had Breast Cancer (I was pregnant), and I was a BRCA2 gene carrier. Fortunately, I had time to digest one thing before the next train wreck came barreling along. However, a train wreck is a train wreck and leaves a whole lot of carnage in its wake.

Ever since the beginning, I have always gotten compliments on how I have handled my challenges; when the Doctor sat me down and told me that I had Thyroid Cancer, my Sister and Dad were in the room with me. I always had wondered about how people would react to being told they had the big ‘C’; I imagined it would be tough to hear, and maybe they would even break down in cry from being overwhelmed. I felt none of that, I’m not sure if I just hadn’t processed what was going on at the time, or my Dr. was just that reassuring. He said, “If you had to get any Cancer, Thyroid is the easiest to treat.”. That was enough for me; I didn’t even feel sad. I think I was more aggravated because we couldn’t wait until the Summer to have the surgery, which was an inconvenience for me since I am a teacher, and I would have to miss work. I remember thinking, “I don’t wanna tell Mom; this will break her heart.”, as being my only concern. Mind you, I had just turned 24 a month before this moment and was a new mother myself, but again, I wasn’t worried about me; and my Dr. was right, we had the surgery in December 2014, and I took the radiation (R131) pill in February 2015 and then boom, I was Cancer free. The second round was a different story. Exactly six months later, I found the lump. It was the night before I returned to work from Summer break. I was in my closet, changing my clothes when my left arm grazed the side of my left breast, and it just felt wrong. I hadn’t noticed it before, so, of course, I investigated. I knew how to self-check and had been practicing for years. I knew what the lump meant, even before I had the results. I remember quietly getting into bed, in the dark, and laying down next to my husband. I remember telling him what I just found. I remember him wrapping his arms around me, and I think that is what broke the dam. I had been so proud of how I handled my previous diagnosis, but I was angry now, that I had to go through more. I was tired of fighting, and I hadn’t done much of it. I was overwhelmed with how soon this occurred right after my last illness. I had so many questions, like ‘Why me?’ and ‘What did I do wrong to deserve this?’ and ‘What do we do now?’. Of course, my husband was the only one to see me like this. I had to go to work the next day, and on the drive there, I called up my Godmother, who worked in Pathology and told her about the lump. She had me set up to see my Doctor by the end of the day. The day I got the results of the biopsy, I remember teaching a lesson to my students and getting a call from the school phone. I learned that when they ask to see you immediately, then the news is always bad, they make you wait for the good news. The sucky part was that I was standing in front of a room full of teenagers who had no idea what was going on. I remember closing my eyes, taking a deep breath, and putting on the “Mrs. Romero” smile that I always wore for them and went about the rest of the lesson. Not even an hour later, I got another call on the intercom to see my cousin, Jenny, in her classroom. Since this was my off block, I immediately went to her room, thinking that she needed me to watch her students for a minute, so I grabbed some papers that I needed to grade and headed over to her classroom. When I got there, she told me to grab my things, and my Godmother was here to take me to the Dr.’s office. Even though I already knew what they would say, this was the moment that I began to break down. I looked Jenny in the eyes and said, “I’m pregnant,” I left out the ‘What do I do?’ that I wanted to say. I kept repeating “I’m pregnant.”, to her, to my Godmother who was in the hall waiting for me, to my sister in the car ready to drive us to the office, my mom who was at the office waiting for us to show up, and to my Dr. who didn’t get a chance to tell me the bad news. Though I had done an at-home test the night before, the Dr. had me do a blood test to make it official. The drive home was quiet. My mom and Godmother took me home, and my sister had picked up my car, which we had left school. I had so many things on my mind, but there was one that I knew I had to share before I lost my nerve, or before anyone could convince me otherwise. I told them that if it came down to it, this baby, who was in utero for only five weeks, was to take priority over me, no matter the cost. I said it with a lump in my throat and tears streaming down my face, but my eyes dared them to contradict me. This was one of the easiest decisions I had ever made, and there was nothing anyone could say to change my mind. Finally, I discovered why I was getting sick all the time. When I went to MD Anderson Cancer Center to begin planning and treatment for being a pregnant Breast Cancer patient at the glamorous age of 24 who had previously beaten Thyroid Cancer, everyone had questions. They brought me to see a Geneticist who took my DNA and wrote down my family history, and we discovered that I carried the BRCA2 gene. I was told that I would have a higher chance of getting breast, ovarian, and pancreatic Cancer; this was a relief to find out why this was happening to me. The only part that felt like a punch to the gut was when they told me that the rest of my family had to get tested to see if they, too, carried the gene and that my children would also have to be tested someday. They explained that most carriers decide to have prophylactic mastectomy/hysterectomies, which help prevent those Cancers. I hated the thought that people I love could also get sick like me, and I knew I would spend the rest of my life worrying about my children. That was the part that I hated.

Just had my reconstruction, it took over 19 hours!

How did being a BRCA2 gene carrier impact your choices for prevention?

Some choices are easier to make than others; it was easy for me to say, ‘Let’s chop em’ off!’ when it came to my boobs, they weren’t worth not watching my kids grow up, and one boob was already attempting to kill me. The hardest choice was the hysterectomy; I wanted more children, two was not enough. I wanted a house crawling with them and all the chaos that came with it. Given my history, I had already had two Cancers and wanted to avoid a third, but more importantly, I wanted to watch my babies grow up. So, even though I knew what I had to give up, I focused on what I had to gain, and barely five months after my son was born, I had a total hysterectomy. Menopause in your mid-20s sucks, but I get to hold my babies every night. Until next time, somethings in life are worth suffering for, and you need to know when to put your foot down. Stay golden, pink ladies and gents.