BRCA Testing

Today was  my second to the last Herceptin appointment. I also had a blood draw. For some reason, my white count was low...well, I think it was the same as it was the last time I had it drawn, but it should have improved. My oncologist was on vacation (which is a rare event for her), so I met with a nurse practitioner, Lynley Fow. She burst into the room, darted out to get some soap because the dispenser was empty in the room, mentioned she had a fleck of mascara underneath her contacts that was bugging her, commented that she kept getting texts from Dr. Kohn when she should be enjoying her vacation, and then said something about my blood count being low and was I feeling okay. I told her that I was feeling fine, wasn't too overly tired, so she shrugged and said it probably wasn't anything. My head was spinning a bit and I forgot to ask her for a copy of my counts, but I'm confident that if it is disconcerting, my oncologist will be on top of it when she returns from her vacation. Lynley then checked my records and mentioned how I was almost done with Herceptin, and I told her I was happy about this but also a bit nervous. She reminded me that I would still be seeing the doctor every three months for the next few years and would still have Tamoxifin working for me, so I wouldn't be totally cut loose. 

I then mentioned that I had discovered some information on my family medical history that I wanted to discuss. A couple of years ago, my sister Patty had a tumor on her ovary that was not cancerous but was "borderline." Her gynecologist, after finding out about my breast cancer diagnosis, mentioned to Patty that we  should get genetic testing.  At first, I was resistant to believing we could have this hereditary link. She then reminded me of our grandmother, my dad's mom, who died of cancer at 44. My dad was a teenager so, of course, we never met her. Plus, we were told she died of stomach cancer. Seventy years ago when she died, the medical world didn't have the testing they do today on cancer. By the time she was treated, cancer had spread all throughout her stomach. It could have been ovarian cancer that spread. We won't know for sure. The nurse practitioner agreed that genetic testing should be looked into. She checked the requirements from my insurance on getting the test, and if my grandmother had ovarian cancer and with my cancer diagnosis at age 50, I would qualify to have insurance pay for the $3800 BRCA 1 and 2 test. So, I had three more vials of blood drawn and will know in a week or two the results.

Even though I qualified to have this test, I have a 10% chance of having this faulty gene. The faulty gene, which is passed down from parent to child, increases a person's risk of developing ovarian, breast, pancreatic and prostrate cancers. If I have this gene, my breast cancer risk increases from under 10% now to up to 87%. With this gene mutation, my risk of ovarian cancer increases from less than 1% to 44%. This has hit the news recently when Angelina Jolie revealed she tested positive for the BRCA 1 gene. The reason I believe it is important to authorize this test is to plan further steps in decreasing my risk. Yup, that'll probably mean  more surgery. However, more than just me, I also feel it is important to know if we have this genetic link for my kids and my siblings. If I have the BRCA gene mutation, then my sisters and brother would have 50% chance of having it, too. And so would my children.  

My prayer is that God  would be gracious on us and our family and that my test would come back negative. I'd appreciate your prayers on this, too.