How a Target Gift Card Saved My Life

Incredible but true..

I love me some Target and often joke it's a 50.00 cover charge for me to just walk in the store.  So last fall when my employer offered a 25.00 gift card for filling out a health survey and going for a check up I jumped right in.  Hey! that's half a shopping trip right there.

At my annual gyn appointment, my new doctor took a full history and then promptly referred me to our cancer genetics department.  I figured it would be negative and then I could stop worrying and start shopping.  

Au contraire.

Damn thing came back positive.

Then came more appointments and tests which all looked...within normal limits.  Since I was 50 the gyn oncologist I saw, STRONGLY recommended removing my ovaries.  Since I no longer needed them and was having hot flashes anyway, I made the date for the OR.  

I had what I *thought* was preventative surgery.  Well, I guess technically it was, since my fallopian tubes were plotting to kill me.

And it all started with a Target gift card.

AND...I received that gift card in the mail last week.  Finally

Just in time to use it to buy supplies to get me through Chemo

Isn't it Ironic...don't ya think?

We Are Family...and I have the testing to prove it

My dad's family had a long line of female cancer history.  While I worried about it a little,  I had figured since it was my DAD maybe I wouldn't get those cancer genes.  Plus his side of the family?  All tall and thin...me not so much.

But unfortunately genes don't discriminate.  It's pretty much the luck of the draw...or you know, not.

My Paternal Grandmother Lucille

Isn't she lovely?  This was on her wedding day in 1920.

My grandmother went on to have 7 children, six daughter and one son..who was my father.  Lucille died at the age of 42.  My dad was only six.  His memories of her were of visiting her in the hospital.  Back then you paid to provide a private duty nurse to stay with your loved one in the hospital.  So her oldest daughters who were teens at the time, took turns sitting in the afternoon and evening with her.  The other would go home to watch the younger children and cook dinner.  My grandparents were farmers in Kansas.  My grandfather moved off the farm at this time so his wife could receive medical care.  

My father's 2 oldest sisters would also succumb to advanced breast and ovarian cancer in the 50's and 60's.  They were both in the their 30's when they were diagnosed.  They also both left young children and families.  Finally my father's youngest sister survived breast cancer at age 50 in the 1980's I sure due to better screening and treatment.

Ok...so that was then...this is now.  

I find out my cousin was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005.  She turns out to be BRCA 1+.  

I have my test done in March of this year...and discover I also carry this mutation.

All of us inherit 2 BRCA genes.  In a BRCA Mutation one of the genes is broken.  So at some point you have a increased chance of developing usually breast or ovarian cancer.  My family's particular mutation is 

r1835x or c.5503C>T

I have it.  As do several of my family members.  Turns out it originates in Germany or the Netherlands. Which fits since we are of German descent.

My mutation means I have:

A 40% chance of developing ovarian cancer by age 70

A 55-65% (although some say higher) chance of developing Breast cancer by age 70.

While not all cancers are genetically related.  They are discovering many who have this gene get cancer.  

Like me.

I'm in the 40%.

WHAM...There was Cancer

I was cruising along in life.  Happily married, 3 kids almost grown.  Successful career.  My husband and I decided to relocate from Connecticut to Dallas Tx.  We were tired of the weather and the high cost of living.  It took us almost a year to do it, but we successfully made the move and were loving our new home.  When I was diagnosed with early stage fallopian tube cancer.

Now in reality my tumors were small.  Two small (1mm or less) lesions found in both of my fallopian tubes.  So the biggest tumor was the size of this pencil point:

But to me it felt more like:

Because you see ovarian cancer is one bad mofo.  It's killed several women in our family.  Now that nasty little alien had decided to take up residence in me.