"The Waiting"

Yesterday my mom and I headed down to UH and the Center of Human Genetics. This was a fact finding session to go over my family history of cancer and more importantly, breast cancer. In order for insurance to pay for some or all of this test, the counselor goes through a series of question and your family tree.

It was very interesting to see her write all of this information down and chart it all. Once she was finished, it was very apparent that there is some sort of link genetically on my grandfather's side. What that link is remains to be seen. It could be the breast cancer gene but it might be some other gene that they might not know enough about yet.

They took my blood to send off to testing assuming insurance doesn't cause any grief. Basically what happens is IF my out of pocket is under $375 then they will process the test. If its OVER $375, they call me and I have to make a decision on whether I want the test done or not. It is the counselors belief that insurance should pay for this based on my family history. HOWEVER, as well all know, nothing is ever guaranteed. I know I can't afford to just pay for the test myself(around $4,000). So fingers crossed, Anthem pays for it and there are not any issues.

My results should be back in about 4 weeks barring any complications. If it comes back positive, it definitely answers why this happened to my twice. The next step would be an Oophorectomy, which is the removal of your ovaries. If you test positive, you have a 40% chance of ovarian cancer. If I test negative, I will continue the Lupron shots to shut down my ovaries and I might go into further genetic testing to see if there is something else that is in my families DNA. I also may have the Oophorectomy, provided it can be cleared by insurance. We will just have to wait and see.

It will be great to get the results. A part of me hopes I am a carrier of the gene. That may sound weird but at least I will have an answer as to why I endured hell the past 4+ years.

I will definitely update everyone once I get the results.

XOXO
B