When my mother died of ovarian cancer in 2008, I went through the many emotions of grief, sadness, gratitude for the Hospice care she received, relief that she was finally free from pain, and worry as to what I was going to do with 200 Beanie Babies. At no time did I think about hereditary factors. Not only did it not occur to me in that rare, egoless time of my life, but no one around me broached the subject - no nurse, no family member, no friend. I was 40 years old.
Fast forward ten years when my friend and fellow Yogi was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer. She strongly encouraged me to get a mammogram - which I had not done in more than two decades - and they found three tumors: two that were stage 1, and one “in situ,” which means it was getting ready to become a stage one.
I was diagnosed in June 2018. Five years earlier in 2013, Angelina Jolie had made the BRCA (the acronym is pronounced “bracka” and stands for “breast cancer risk assessment) gene test more widely known, and I fortunately tested negative for it - which meant that I did not have the specific genetic makeup for the genes that present a high-risk factor for either ovarian or breast cancer. Even for people who are already diagnosed with cancer, this genetic test allows you and your medical team to plan a course of action for treatment. For me, surgery was the plan - a lumpectomy of the area where the three tumors congregated closely together - along with a six-week radiation course of treatment. Thanks to catching it early (thanks, Amy!), and another genomic test called the Oncotype DX, I did not need a mastectomy or chemotherapy. I also preventatively had my ovaries removed.
The next stage of treatment was a five-year daily course of an aromatase inhibitor drug called Letrozole. Five-year course. Tamoxifen was the other and older (synthesized in 1962) drug option, one that when I weighed the side effects, Letrozole was the better choice for me. (Heart attack or bone loss…?)
The final frontier that many women must face to manage breast cancer is annual screenings and blood tests. For me, this is all concentrated into the month of September with the mammogram, the MRI with contrast (dye shot into your veins via an IV), the visit to the oncologist, and a blood workup. For those of us on the bone-depleting Letrozole, we hit the DEXA bone scan every other year. These annual screenings are lifelong.
Two years ago, around the time of the completion of the five-year round of the estrogen-blocker drug, I was in Virginia when my oncologist contacted me about a new biomarker test that checks the tumor or tumors for the likelihood of recurrence. I mention that I was out of town because the test was to be performed on my previously extracted tumors - which they had evidently kept and put into some walk-in refrigerator up at the Med-Center five years before in the hopes that a test like this would be developed in the future. One tumor came back with the test result of a 3 percent likelihood of recurrence. The other came back as 5 percent. Oncologists do not like a test result of 5 percent or above, and my doctor recommended I remain on the Letrozole for another five years. I declined.
Every year in October, when the tests results are in and clear, I am renewed with gratitude for everything and everyone in my life. Grateful for another year of coffee and Yoga, of friends and family, of travel and ocean, of horse and pony, of books and love. My mother always said, “count your blessings.” And I do.
Love & Blessings,
Yes! More good test results.