Lately I feel like I am working in the medical field. I have been in constant contact with doctors, nurses and hospital staff for over a week now. I have two more appointments next week then surgery the following week. I feel like I am running on steam.
First week of school and I have missed so much already. I'm drained in the morning so I'm running on autopilot to get my middle schooler off to the bus stop and get ready for work myself. I'm so wore out at the end of the day all I want to do is lay in bed and be lazy.
Enough self pity...My husband is taking me out tonight. Let's say its my last HOORAH before a weekend full of meal planning, cooking and freezing for after surgery. After that I have four days of work and a weekend full of anxiety and cleaning. I hate to come home to a cluttered house when I can't do anything about it so we are on a mission to clean top to bottom before surgery. Three boys live here so that isn't an easy task.
Just got off the phone with Pre-Admission to go through my health history. I always have to go through my list of surgeries even though all of my surgeries were at the same hospital and they have the records. I always wonder why they don't just look it up.
I go back to see my oncologist next week before surgery and have to go to Pre-Admin Testing for blood work. Again, why are you typing my blood if you have all my records? I'm pretty sure I'm still A+ just like the last 20 times you have typed my blood.
My sarcasm and irritability come out more when I'm upset...can you tell?
As I promised in the title of this post, we are going to talk about sex. Well, the lack thereof actually. No sex for 8-10 weeks after surgery. Hmm...doesn't sound like fun huh?
I'm sure the first few weeks I won't want anything to do with sex but what about after? Even when I'm back to a normal routine will the medical menopause hinder my drive? Menopause can run havoc on a woman's sex drive. Some women say they don't see much of a difference but can I be so lucky?
I sure wasn't lucky finding out that I have a BRCA1 mutation. Yep, I'm a mutant. No super powers, darn.
Most of the studies I have seen show a 1% chance of being BRCA1 or BRCA2 positive in non-Jewish ethnicities. You have a better chance of winning the lottery than being BRCA positive. If one of your parents have a BRCA mutation you will have a 50% chance. Know your family history. If you don't know, ask. If anyone in your family has had breast or ovarian cancer, ask them if they were tested for genetic mutations. If so, get the results and tell your doctor. A person can't have a genetic mutation if neither of their parents have it.
Each of my children have a 50% chance of being BRCA positive. Someone was looking out for me by giving me three boys. I always wanted a girl at some point but men have less risk with the mutation. For one, there is less breast tissue and they don't have ovaries. The risk of prostate cancer does increase in men carrying BRCA1 mutations. Men carrying the mutation have a 16% chance of prostate cancer by age 70. Whereas, a woman with BRCA1 mutation carries an 87% chance of developing breast cancer. This is a lifetime risk but BRCA breast cancers are usually at a younger age than other hereditary breast cancers. My risk of ovarian with the mutation I have is 65%.
The mutation creates nonsense in the DNA sequence. Mine is 3604delA which means in the 6000 nucleotides composing the BRCA1 gene at position 3604 I am missing A. Everything after that is based on misread information because something is missing. What does this mean?
It means my body can't repair damaged DNA as easily as someone without the mutation because my BRCA gene that produces tumor suppressor proteins doesn't function properly. In a nutshell, my cells are likely to develop more genetic alterations that can lead to cancer.
This is all information a genetic counselor can explain to you.
Off I go for a night with my husband. Our last date night for the next month or so.
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