Visit to Geneticist

Saturday 26/6

Dear friends,
I was berated by my Bible Study group on Thursday for not updating my blog. Sorry to those others of you who likewise have looked and found nothing. So here goes!
I started my first injection of Zoladex ( which stops the ovaries producing oestrogen) on Friday a week ago. No side effects so far but these may take a month or two to show up.
Last Tuesday we saw the geneticist Dr Hilda High who was a lovely woman and so knowledgable. We were there for about an hour as she explained the ins &outs of the genetics of breast cancer as far as what is known to date, but the area of genetics is quite obviously a rapidly growing field and more is bring discovered all the time. The high risk breast cancer mutations are on 2 genes called Brca1 & Brca2.Only 2% of people who get breast cancer have one of these mutations. If you do have one of these mutations your chance of getting breast cancer is between 40 - 80%. Given my family history and the fact my breast cancer was bilateral my chance of having the mutation is a little over 10% which means I qualify to have it funded by the government which is a blessing as for a number of reasons we had decided to get it done either way and if I was below10% it would have cost $1750! My mother had offered to pay for it which was very generous but I was overjoyed to tell her she didn't need to.
I had the blood test done on Thursday and they were able to mark it urgent which means I will get the results within a month but hopefully sooner.
If it comes back negative I will then start the radiotherapy. If it comes back positive then I will have to consider whether to have more surgery due to the higher risk of getting another primary breast cancer.
Anyway that's the latest on the medical side. On the social side Mady turns 18 today and we are getting ready for her party with 70 friends (couldn't possibly get the list down from that apparently!)
We are holding our breath and looking forward to 11.30pm!!
I will be more diligent with updating the blog at least once a week even if there is little to report!
Love Jill