Genetic Counseling

Before going for my genetic counseling, I got some paperwork in the mail to fill out about my family.  It mostly had to do with any illness that ran in my family especially any cancers that family members have had.  I filled this out with some help from my mother.

When we got there, the counselor introduced herself and started asking the same questions that the paperwork had asked.  The paperwork being filled out made the interview that much easier.  After she filled out her charts and forms, she spoke with me about the blood work that can be done now to test for BRAC-1 and the BRAC-2 genes.  These are the known genes that are attributed to cancers, but in reality there are probably more we are not aware of yet.

The following letter to me from the genetic counselor explains a lot and in detail about the appointment, so here it is...

Less than two weeks later I got a call to set up an appointment to go over the results.  It seemed pretty quick.  They did not want to go over results on the phone, so I had to go in.  Once I got there, they got right to the point.  I did not have either mutation.  Once again, this does not mean there isn't something there that could possibly be genetic, it just means that of the known genes for breast cancer I did not test positive.  They would keep me informed if there were any other tests that could be done in the future.  

This was very good news for me and my family.  I could keep my ovaries.  Yay!  Now for the hard decisions that needed to be made.  To have surgery or not to have surgery.  That is the question...