Next Step

I got a long-awaited call from the surgeon yesterday with the results of the BRCA test.  I was so happy to hear him say the results were negative.  What a relief! “Hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC) is a genetic condition. This means that the cancer risk can be passed from generation to generation in a family. Two genes are associated with HBOC: BRCA1 and BRCA2 (BRCA stands for BReast CAncer). A mutation (alteration) in either of these genes gives a woman an increased lifetime risk of developing breast and ovarian cancers.” (www.cancer.net). Imagine my relief when I got the results.  I fret at the thought of the increased chance of getting breast cancer for my own children and my dear siblings.  The Lord is good and hears prayers!

Last week, I had to be put on a medicine called Parlodel to stop my milk production in preparation for my upcoming surgery.  In order to do so, I had to start taking the medicine and stop nursing cold turkey, without pumping.  For all you nursing mothers, you can imagine my discomfort!  The medicine has now finally taken effect and I am now thankfully pain free.  I will be meeting with Dr. Foster this Monday to discuss which surgery to perform, my choices being a lumpectomy, a mastectomy or a double mastectomy.  I feel like this is such a huge decision with life-changing effects, and I have been struggling with making up my mind.   I have been fervently praying to be guided to the right decision.  I want to make sure I make the right one.  I continue to research and seek counsel from my Heavenly Father to know what to do.  According to the doctor, all of the surgeries will take care of this cancer and none are superior to the other.  They did advise me to go with whatever one I feel most comfortable with and with whichever one will not keep me up worrying at night about the prospect of the cancer returning.  We are trying to think long term and want to do everything in our power to help prevent the return of this cancer.  We do know that it is ultimately in God’s hands and will accept His will regardless.  But we would like to ere on the side of caution as much as possible.  So I am thankful for the few more days I have ahead of me to come to a sound decision.

On another note, some of you may be aware that our family was planning on a move across country to Utah this coming week.  This has sadly been put on hold because of my recent diagnosis and upcoming treatments.  Jason works for a wonderful company, Chick-Fil-A.  We have been working really hard the past several years to get our own franchise.  Our dream finally came true last October as we were offered a store in Layton,UT.  We are saddened to have to put this on hold after waiting for this opportunity for so long, but know our family must stay together, as we know that is when we are strongest.  We cannot even begin to express our overwhelming gratitude and appreciation for the numerous accommodations Chick-Fil-A has provided us with upon hearing of the diagnosis.  We obviously needed to keep our insurance going and to continue to have income while Jason stays back to be with our family.  Chick-Fil-A has ensured these things to happen by letting him work for corporate from home until we are ready to move again. We feel so blessed to be working with such a family-oriented company with such compassion and Christ like love. We have had so many people from this company (peers, heads of the company and people Jason has never even met) reach out to us.  We were very much surprised last night as I answered a knock on the door to find two humongous boxes waiting for us.  We were DEEPLY touched as we opened them only to find an abundance (and I mean abundance!) of toys and other goodies for the children and the family.  They were sent by the Utah operators that are in the region Jason was going to be in and by a marketing team.  I was at a loss for words as I marveled at the tremendous thoughtfulness of these wonderful people.  We again feel so blessed through this experience and want to continue to thank all of you for your constant prayers and thoughts.  They touch us so much. We are reminded each day of the power of prayer and the blessings of having a tremendous support group in all of you.  We feel the outpouring of love and are uplifted by it.  Thank you for making this experience one of growth.   We will continue to update the blog as I go and have surgery, which is now scheduled for this Wednesday, Feb. 15^th.
~Audree