Living with BRCA - About me

About Me

I learned about hospitals, nurses, and doctors around 1964. I was struck by a car on a cold snowy morning when I was in the first grade. It was completely my fault and to this day I feel sorry for the young man driving the car. I still have a few scars as a reminder of my foolishness.  The accident proved beyond a doubt in my young mind, doctors can do anything. Looking back, BRCA had not been discovered and to be honest, my knowledge of genetics came from science fiction movies like "The Fly".

My mom found a lump in her breast when she was 33 or 34 years old. She tried to keep it secret from us, but I overheard her describing the biopsy process to a neighbor. The lump was benign but had to be removed, 15 years later, mom had a mastectomy.

Almost 30 years later, my daughter was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer at the age of 29. I plan to write in great detail our experience with the diagnosis and subsequent treatment. But for now, that was my introduction to BRCA, Texas Oncology, and our new way of life.

My daughter's Oncologist recommended that the whole family (parents and siblings) be checked for the BRCA gene mutation. The test results confirmed my worse nightmare, I was BRCA positive and so were all of my daughters. My wife was not.

These are just a few of the life altering events, there are more to come in future chapters.

Check back periodically for new chapters in this on-going saga.