Angelina Jolie to have additional cancer preventing surgery

I hope everything goes well for her.  She really has increased awareness of BRCA mutations and I can't imagine what it must be like to go through all this as a public figure. 

Does anyone else feel the way I do about both Angelina Jolie and Giuliana Rancic?  They were both lucky to find out about their cancer early enough to have mastectomies and immediate reconstruction and were portrayed as being so brave to have done so.  What about the rest of us who were not so lucky?  

My surgeon was sure I would only need a lumpectomy and possibly radiation.  The results from the lumpectomy showed cancer from bone to skin, and it involved several lymph nodes.  I was not able to have a skin sparing mastectomy.  I also went through chemo and radiation, and got horrible burns; all the way through to my back.  I was first told I could not have reconstructive surgery due to the skin damage from radiation but was referred to a microvascular surgeon twenty months after my mastectomy.  She performed a GAP flap procedure, a 12 hour surgery.  Three days later I underwent a 5 hour emergency surgery to try to improve the blood flow.  The nurses or surgical assistants had tried to straighten out my arm while I was still awake. I told them I couldn't move my arm.  They tried anyway but were unable to do it until I was unconscious.  Subconsciously, I felt and knew what happened and awoke from the surgery grinding my teeth.  I have been suffering from anxiety and depression since. Thirteen days after the initial surgery, it was all removed and I lost more skin.

Six months after that, my surgeon did a LAT flap procedure.  She was able to put in a small implant, only about half the size and not at all the same shape as the other breast.  I was not happy with the results.  Eight months later she replaced the implant with a larger, more natural looking implant and did a small reduction on the other side.  I am still a bit unequal , but can live with it.  However, I have horrible scars on my right buttock and lat area and my breast looks like a portion of a patchwork quilt.  I plan to have a nipple tattoo done soon.

So now it is almost 3 1/2 years since my lumpectomy and I have undergone 7 surgeries.  I was diagnosed in 2010 when I was 49 years old.  My previous mammography had been two years earlier, Kaiser's policy is every two years until the age of fifty.  If I had had a mammography at 48, I may not have had to go through all of this.

Anyone who is diagnosed early enough to have immediate reconstruction and not loose their hair and basically a part of their lives to chemo should feel like the luckiest women on earth and I do not find anything brave in being lucky.

Well, I disagree anyone who has a cancer diagnosis is "lucky". Yes, there are stages where it is more likely to treat it effectively with more simple treatment, and one can live the rest of her life without a recurrence, but even those with early stage cancers can end up with chemo, surgical complications, radiation complications, mets, not to mention side effects, emotional impact, and so on. Certainly, if I *were* to be diagnosed I would prefer it be in early stages versus late stages/mets, but I would be luckiest if I did not get cancer at all.

And, as SpecialK noted, Angelina does not have cancer. She is BRCA1+, so she had her PBMX and will be having her ooph as risk-reduction surgeries. WIthout them, she is at very high risk of both cancers (up to 87% for breast, something like 60+% for ovarian, depending on the mutation and her family history). Neither reduce her risk of breast or ovarian cancer 100% though, she still remains at a risk that can be higher than many in the "average population" as it is impossible to remove all possible tissues, and she also remains at higher risk of certain other cancers, such as peritoneal cancer which has very high mortality. Her mother died of ovarian, her aunt last year of breast cancer. Apparently both BRCA1 & 2 run in her family, which also means some family members are at higher risk of other cancers, like pancreatic... which has dismal survival times.

Do you understand that people like Angelina Jolie who make those choices are VERY aware of what cancer..and cancer treatments... can do (often to many family members) and are trying to
prevent that from happening to themselves or their families? I have seen what it did to my mother (at 48 a Stage III dx (6+cm, 19+ nodes) had a very difficult surgery and recovery, chemo, radiation, and now going on 7-8 years of chemoprevention...and we wait and hope everyday it is enough to hold a recurrence back...annual mammograms NEVER saw it), my grandmother (two primaries - one in her 40s, one in her early 50s, died of mets at 59 when I was very young), my great grandmother who I never met...she died during exploratory surgery with extensive mets, my other great grandmother who also died before I was born of bc/colon cancer.

I am getting a nipple-sparing PBMX with immediate recon...so I am fortunate to have that option for cosmetics (but was prepared to lose nipples as well) but I have NO idea what my recovery will be like, what complications I will have, whether I will have ongoing pain, whether I will STILL get breast cancer anyway in the tissue they can't remove. I am walking into an unknown there. I am a very active person, and I have NO idea how this may impact me or my lifestyle. But I am doing it because I do not want to repeat my family history. It is very sad to me that so many members of my family were gone so soon, never known by the younger ones. I chose not to have children (in part because of my family history but also for other reasons..but just to show what an influence this has), but I still do have nieces and nephews, and want to know them and them to know me. 

I don't consider my choice *brave*, but I sure do rail at the idea of being "lucky" that my *best* option if I want to really reduce my hereditary risk is amputating my breasts. I hope one day the options are much better than that. I would think Angelina would probably say something pretty similar, and I am sure she worries about HER bio kids and what hereditary risk they have inherited and what choices they may have or may not have in the future.

I avoided any comment on Rancic because quite honestly I know diddly squat about her! I had never heard of her until her cancer, and have really never heard of her in any other context. I am still not even sure I know who she is, ha, but I have garnered she is some sort of announcer/celebrity.

There is not some limited quantity of admiration to go around, just as there isn't some limited quantity of bad luck to go around.

AJ's situation...sucks.  Maybe it sucks less than someone else's and it likely does, but it still sucks.  I can admire her for how she's handled her sucky situation without in any way detracting from the amount I admire women somehow dealing with even more sucky situations.  It's not like someone saying she is brave somehow means that anyone else is less brave.  It's not a competition and there are no winners when it comes to surgeries and risks for cancer.  If there were, I'm betting the winner of the "cancer trophy" would be more than happy to trade it in exchange for being healthy and not having to go through cancer treatment.

I also think that having high profile celebrities dealing with BC and BC risk publicly does help others.  Years ago, when my OB/GYN casually brought up BRCA testing, I didn't know much about it and opted not to test.  Hearing about AJ's testing and surgery was one of several things that prompted me to research genetic testing more and that researching eventually led me to where I am now, waiting on my own genetic testing results.  All this and I'm not even a huge AJ fan.  Who knows how many other people became more informed about genetic testing for cancer risk from hearing about her surgeries?  I know my primary care doctor was even more aware of BRCA testing because of it...and that's a medical professional.

And yeah...I have no idea who Ranic is, but then I'm not much up on pop culture.

As others have mentioned, Angelina Jolie did not have cancer, and was having risk-reduction surgery because she has a BRCA1 mutation. I get that being diagnosed with cancer sucks, no matter what that path entails...certainly some people have more with which to contend than others and it sounds like you've had a lot on your plate and that's not fair. I sincerely wish that you had not been dealt this unfortunate hand in life. However, I think it would be very, very wrong to denigrate others just because they are not faced with the same level of terrible circumstances. They (AJ and GR) have not claimed they themselves are heroes or brave; those descriptions are the way others have chosen to describe them. If, for whatever reason, you dislike that depiction of them and believe it is unfitting, then perhaps your focus should be on the incorrect way in which breast cancer is written about and reported on in the media rather than to criticize those who are taking the steps they need to take to deal with the sucky hand they were dealt with regards to this disease. I have been diagnosed with cancer and had chemotherapy, but does that mean that my experience should be belittled by someone who is in a worse situation? I have a BRCA1 mutation and passed it on to my daughter. She had her risk-reducing double mastectomy (like AJ had, but it was in the works before AJ went public) just last week. My daughter has not had a cancer diagnosis and I pray she never does. Does that mean her actions are not brave because she found out from my cancer diagnosis that she has a lifetime risk of almost 87%? Because she was "lucky enough" to have the info those of us who were blind-sided by a breast cancer diagnosis did not have, and as a result, was able to act pre-emptively, that makes her less than brave? I seriously don't think so, and to say it does is offensive. I get that your situation is not one anyone would wish for, but to attack others because you believe they haven't earned their stripes and you have is terrible. Seeing someone who has no good options but to remove their breast tissue to try to keep from being in our shoes, I do not look at them and think: "hmmm...they're 'lucky' and that means they aren't brave" and I'm appalled that anyone would think that way. Sure, I totally get that the way celebrities are described with regards to disease is sometimes frustrating, but that's where the focus should be--on those who portray the cancer experience in a way in which you believe is inaccurate and NOT those who are experiencing their own personal hell. We can always find someone whose situation is perhaps more dire, but that's just petty. There are no awards because someone has a more intense level of cancer suckdom than another.

My PBMX was already scheduled when AJ made her original statement regarding her surgery.  I can't tell you how many (dumb) people made comments about how I just wanted to be like Angelina. 

Very good point lintrollerderby (seriously creative name btw). I could very well be wrong with my dislike of her, but since you were familiar with her, is it just me or does she do the opposite.....not downplay it, like most celebrities do in keeping quiet, but drone on about how horrible it was. It's like she lacks the self-awareness to realize her situation pales in comparison, like someone who's lost their legs, or going blind, or children being diagnosed with cancer, for instance. I'm always open to having my mind changed.

Edited..auto correct went nuts.

sarahjane...

I was in the early steps of organizing mine (arranging my testing, consults, etc...things can move slow up here!) when she announced...but I have been fortunate in that no one has implied I was imitating AJ! Sorry you had to deal with such stupidity!

Thanks guys.  It was more aggravating than upsetting.  I get that when people don't know what to say, they tend to say stupid things.  If not for the timing of AJ's announcement, I probably would have heard equally stupid sh*t like "at least you get a new rack" or "you'll have the perky boobs of a 20 year old"....

I was about 2 months out from my exchange surgery when Angie hit the news. At first I was pissed that the media poured so many "brave" adjectives on her case while so many of the rest of us have to truly brave these decisions with lesser resources, but I got over it. She is a good ambassador in so many ways. It would have been nice for her or the media to acknowledge the huge numbers of those of us going through similar surgeries with fewer options. In  the end I'm pleased that this wonderful humanitarian publicized and paved the way for others, some still young girls who are years away from diagnosis, that you can experience  mastectomy and still be a strong and beautiful.