Any BRCA+ women here?

Hi Rachel,

I am BRCA 1 +, so are two of my sisters. We all both removed, and hysterectomies.

It sucks. But, we are all alive and 'well' now.

Good luck with all your procedures girl, and best wishes for speedy recoveries!

Hugs, Traci

I am BRCA2+.   Breast cancer has been in my family for many generations (it was already called the Caudill curse in my great-grandmother's generation--Caudill was her maiden name), but until I had the test, no one was able to put a name to the reason why.   

My mother died of BC at the age of 49.  I had DCIS 20 years ago, and a mastectomy for a recurrence 6 years after that.  My sister had BC and BMX 10 years ago, and ovaries removed 5 years later.   I'd been asking my gyno what I should be doing...get ovaries out...Mx of remaining breast, etc because of my high risk, but she didn't see any reason to rush into it. 

 I finally decided to change to a new dr who was a little more action-oriented, and on the first visit he insisted I go for the genetic testing.  I found it I had BRCA2 so went immediately to the breast surgeon and said...get it off!   When they sent me for a mammogram and MRI to prepare for the surgery (mind you, this was only 8 months after my last clear mammogram), lo and behold I've got a stage IIIc cancer with a mat of it in the nodes 4 inches long (but flat so I never felt it). So here we are.

I don't have any children, but my sister has two daughters in their late teens.  She is still trying to sort out how/when to tell them what to do, when to get tested.   My other sister got tested and doesn't have the gene.  It's bad enough having a genetic issue (but at least answers the question how I got it...so maybe it wasn't the bourbon, phew!), but hard thinking that my young relatives may also have it too and have to deal with it before they have a chance to think about having a family.

What no one seems to know is whether having the gene will affect my risk of recurrence at this point, or not.

I'm BRCA1+.  I just did my BMX last week and doing a ooph in few a mths.  I'm glad I did it was what I wanted as soon as I found out I was +.  For me it is scary enough to think this monster might show it's ugly head again so whatever I could do to stop that I wanted to do.  I guess there are no guarantees with any of it but I wanted to be as aggressive as I could.

I'm 44, dx with bc just last year, BRCA2+.  I had no known family hx except for a half sister who had bc at 41, BUT she has since tested negative for BRCA2.  I had bilat mx Oct 2010.  I think I was numb from the end of August clear through the beginning of chemo in November.  I just finished 4 rounds of T/C, and getting ready for exchange and ooph next week.  It's a shock, to say the least.

How do we deal?  Well, sometimes we don't do it very well and that's normal.  You do the best you can to get through the rough spots even if you have to take one second at a time.  And then you live your life to the best of your ability as you would have without this knowledge.  Don't let the genetic thing rob you of your life... because it can if we allow it to do so.  I have one daughter, 19, positive and one daughter, 22, negative.  My son is too young for testing.  It isn't easy, that's for sure.

I dreaded the test when my mom tested postive, my sister tested negative, I think deep down I new I had the gene.  I got the test after injurying my breast, they thought the lump was a hemotoma becasue it didn't act like a tumor.  I got my Brac 1+ test the same day I was dx with Stage IV breast cancer at age 29.  Needless to say all the relatives that had refused to get the test got the test, there is still a few holdouts.  With cancer age doesn't matter, becasue I am young I have been able to handle the treatment with really no side effects, and currently I am NED for the past 18 months.