Be Your Own Advocate - 10/29/20

I think so often we listen to and rely on our Doctors to know what is best for us; especially when it comes to a life altering diagnosis. You kind of go on autopilot and do what you need to do. Our Doctors are experts in their field and they know what they are doing. We put our trust in them and follow their lead. But through the short time that I have been on this breast cancer journey, I have quickly learned that not only do I need to trust my Drs and listen to their recommendations, I also need to be my one advocate and take some control of my healthcare and my body. Initially, it was the recommendation of my breast surgeon to do a mastectomy on my right side due to the cancer that was found but it was our decision (mine & Tim’s) to do a bilateral mastectomy even though the biopsy from my left side initially came back as benign/high risk. From what the pathology said, there was no cancer present but it could possibly develop at some point.....we just opted to take both breasts at the same time to mitigate any future risk and not have to have me go through a second surgery of I didn’t have to. After my surgery and final pathology was completed, we made the right decision because there WAS cancer in my left breast that was still “in situ” so it hadn’t spread into the breast tissue like it had in my right breast. Had we not done the bilateral, we would have had to go back to take my left side at some point in the near future. Even my surgeon said she thought we had made a wise decision. When I was diagnosed I was told that even with a family history breast cancer, I didn’t check enough of the boxes to meet the criteria to be tested for the BRCA gene. Today at my oncologist appointment, I asked about it again and told him that while I understood that I did not meet the criteria I wanted to be tested anyway for MY piece of mind and so that we know for our boys if there is the possibility of my passing the gene on to them. While my Dr said he was almost certain that it would come back negative, he understood and would start the paperwork process to have it done. Lastly, I asked at what point is a PET scan done to check me from head to toe. His response to me was when I had pain somewhere (my back, my hip, etc) and then he’d do bloodwork to check levels. Again, I asked why we couldn’t do them at my next visit with him in 3 months just to be on the safe side and make sure. He agrees and ordered it for my next visit. Yes, I am a little gun-shy right now because the thought of ever hearing the word “cancer” again scares the daylights out of me but I am not a “wait and see” type of person. I’d rather be proactive than reactive and if we can prevent recurrence then I’m all for it. There are risks associated with the medications I will be on for the next five years so I am doing what I can do to advocate for myself and get the answers that I can. Even if the BRCA test comes back negative or my bloodwork in January comes back perfectly normal, I will at least have no regrets that I did what I felt was the right thing to do to advocate for myself and have those answers.