Negative for mutation!

15/7/14

Dear friends,
We visited the geneticist on Friday as the results had come back. The result was that I do not have the mutation on the either of the Braca genes which is good news for me & my family in terms of future risk of breast & certain other cancers. There is still a moderately increased risk of breast cancer because of the family history but not the high risk of both breast and ovarian cancer that the mutation would have given. Hurray! This means I don't have the difficult decision of whether to have further surgery which would have been a double mastectomy.
It was a blessing to get the result so quickly and it meant I didn't have to change my appointment with the oncologist which was yesterday. Now that the genetic test was out of the way we could plan for the radiotherapy. It was good to see Fran again - she is a wonderful lady. We talked menopausal symptoms with a few jokes thrown in, got the referral to the radiation oncologist & I gave her a copy of Dave's book 'hope beyond cure' that I have mentioned previously, suggesting some of her patients might find it quite helpful. We then got on to talking about a project she is going to be involved in with medical students helping/training them to ask patients about whether they have a spiritual dimension to their life and how that is impacting/being impacted by their illness. She asked if I would be interested in being involved, which I certainly am if she thinks I could be helpful.
I then managed to get in to see the radiation oncologist yesterday afternoon. The treatment will be 5days a week for 4weeks starting in the next week or two. I go tomorrow for the planning session.
I then saw the physiotherapist today who specialises in lymphoedema to have some baseline testing done - no sign of lymphoedema yet thankfully. My arm is still quite stiff with some 'cording' which is quite common after an axillary dissection so she gave me some exercises I need to do 3x per day.
Well that's about it for now - it really is quite a process but I'm getting there!
Phil & I had 2 days away on the central coast last week - some wonderful friends have a house which was free for the 2 days it was possible for us to get away. It was great to finally get some time out and it was very refreshing, even if it was only 2 days!
Love Jill