Meet with the Geneticist

March 10, 2026

Today is the day – the emergency meeting with the geneticist. No one, including the surgeon, my family, or myself thought that the genetics test would come back with anything other than a negative result. We’re all shocked!

The surgeon requested that the geneticist meet with me prior to surgery so this literally was an emergency appointment. 

I got a very nice packet of information from her as well as pre-printed letters to my first line family members and she carefully explained the test results as well as percentage risks for ovarian and pancreatic cancers. A prophylactic double mastectomy is not out of the ordinary for this gene mutation and I’m still all for getting this done but my surgeon came in to talk with me and she would rather err on the side of conservation and wants to proceed with the partial mastectomy Monday. 

My biggest concern is having to go through another diagnosis and surgery again for something that could have been avoided by just doing the mastectomy now. If we waited, though, it could be another 6-8 weeks before I would be able to meet with the plastic surgeon and have the oncology surgeon and plastic surgeons schedules align to have this done. Even though I would not opt for reconstruction – I’m 57, they’ve done their job and fed my son many MANY years ago – but the surgeon would prefer “since I’m so young” that I still meet with plastics. 

I’m in regular pain, which I understand is normal with invasive breast cancer and I really just want it gone so I acquiesced, once again, and agreed with the current (conservative) treatment plan. 

An appointment with an oncologic gynecologist has also been made to discuss an oophorectomy because the tumor is hormone positive. I’ve had a hormonal IUD, Mirena, since 2009 (yes, it’s been replaced) so if that is still releasing hormones that is causing tumor growth. I absolutely DO NOT want to start having periods again at my age, but the Mirena needs to come out. Send healing thoughts that I’m through menopause!

The plan is still a partial mastectomy on Monday the 16th, with pathology of the tumor and the nodes removed – she removes three on everyone even if they don’t appear infiltrated. Precautionary tale, I suppose. 

I will then do radiation, and I haven’t yet met with them, and in 6 months I will have an MRI because I am high risk (now). If something shows up on pathology, this could change. I have an appointment with the GYN doc on April 13th to discuss oophorectomy and possible total hysterectomy. At my age, this shouldn’t cause too much of an issue – besides the fact that it’s more surgery, more time off work, and more recovery – since I should be through menopause.

While I’m happy to still be scheduled to have Mel evicted Monday, I’m not happy that there is more waiting and more unknown. I feel like Mel has grown over the past week so I’ll be curious to read the surgical report to know the size when it’s removed.

While sitting talking with the geneticist the tumor started to throb. Psychosomatic? Who knows – I guess I’ll find out next week or the week after. It still hurt when I got home, so I took a pain pill (man I LOVE my PCP – he did not hesitate to prescribe the Xanax, Ultram, and Zofran) but now I’m loopy and still have to get through work. It will be especially challenging as I only got about 4 hours of sleep.

The weather tonight is expected to be tumultuous. We had two cities last week get hit by tornados – IN MARCH! – and one was deadly and, I heard, rated E4. While I hope that we don’t get that again, Dylan just said that the super cell of weather is 1400 miles wide/long and there are currently, as I type, tornados touching down from Texas to Illinois. 

Current forecast for my area overnight is a “Winter Weather Advisory” with freezing rain until 10am Wednesday. The roads are expected to ice over – logical, right? – so any driving tomorrow will be dangerous. 

My grocery trip to Aldi – they put out the new Aisle of Shame items on Wednesday – may have to be postponed. There are still a few things that I feel I should get in terms of easy to have snacks and easy to eat and not have to prepare for recovery, but I suppose that can wait until the roads aren’t a sheet of ice. I certainly hope that this is the last of the winter weather!

I scheduled an appointment to sugar my underarms Friday. I’ve only ever had them waxed but  sugaring seems very popular up here. When I researched, it looks like sugaring lasts longer and having lymph nodes in my arm pit removed means shaving will be uncomfortable once I heal for the first few times so I just want to be hair free as long as possible. I will also get my hair cut and a pedicure over the weekend.

Being completely transparent – I’m utterly terrified. I have had surgery before, major surgery, and I worked perioperatively so I know what to expect; but I’ve never had a cancer diagnosis and I think that is the component that terrifies me. I’m glad I met with the geneticist, and I’m glad that I had the genetic test done, but the thought of having more surgery and increased risk for other cancers, is more than I can emotionally handle right now.

Friends, please please get your testing done. Yes, they’re all inconvenient and uncomfortable, but I do not wish my mental anguish on any of you.