Network News - Winter/Spring 2010 - Canadian Breast Cancer ...

Top 10 Things Young Previvors
(Probably) Don’t Want to Hear
By Steph H.
10) But you’re so young!
Well, I’m staring down the big 3-1
next week, so I don’t really think I’m
all that young any more (but not yet
middle-aged... didn’t Britney Spears
write a song about that?), but all that
is beside the point. Young women do
get breast cancer, and young women
with the breast cancer gene, especially,
get breast cancer. In fact, recent studies
suggest that women with BRCA
mutations are getting sick an average
of six years earlier than the previous
generation. So we’re never too young
to get breast cancer.
9) Well, if you get breast cancer, at
least it’s curable.
This impression that breast cancer
is somehow the “good cancer” to
get befuddles me. Have we really
sanitized the disease so much with
all the pink ribbons and smiling bald
ladies in ads that breast cancer has just
become a woman’s right of passage?
Breast cancer changes lives. And breast
cancer ends lives. I’m not sure why
we have forgotten (willfully ignored?)
this inconvenient truth. And unless I
missed the headlines, there still is no
cure for cancer. What’s more, women
with BRCA mutations who have had
breast cancer have a 40% chance of
recurrence and an elevated risk of
developing second primary cancers.
In other words, breast cancer isn’t like
chicken pox, folks. You don’t get it
once and are immune to it forever.
8) You’re removing healthy body
parts that may never develop
cancer. That’s crazy.
To you, maybe. But to me, it’s the
opposite of crazy. It’s totally sane and
rational. I have a nearly 90% chance of
getting a disease I know I can prevent
if I have this surgery. What’s crazier,
getting it when you didn’t have to or
not getting it because you had surgery?
I’m going to go with what’s behind
door number two, Monty.
7) So wait. If I was told I had the
brain cancer gene, I’d have to
remove my brain?
Are you sure you haven’t already?
No. You would not remove your
brain because you need it to live. I am
removing my breasts because I can live
(both figuratively and literally) without
them. No, I won’t be able to breastfeed,
which is evolutionarily their only
function. But my future children will
survive and thrive on formula. Lots
of people weren’t breastfed. And they
turned out fine. My kids will be, too.
6) That’s not what I would do.
You are free to think that, but I don’t
want to hear it. Truthfully, youimaginary-person-who-doesn’t-havethe-BRCA-mutation,
I don’t really care
what you would do because you don’t
know what it feels like to be me. So
zip it.
5) What if you have the surgery
and then die of something else?
Well, that’s the point right? Not to die
of breast cancer? I don’t know how
long I’ve got, but I’d like to spend my
time here without breast cancer.
4) Look on the bright side; You’re
getting a free boob job!
Reconstruction does not equal a boob
job, folks. Enough said.
3) I always hated my boobs. You’re
lucky to be getting rid of them.
I know lots of women out there have
vexed relationships with their bodies,
and there are parts of mine (armpit fat
area, I’m looking at you) that I hate.
But my boobs are not one of them. I
really like my boobs. They were totally
unexpected additions to my life. I lived
until age 21 without ever needing
to actually wear a bra. And then
suddenly, I needed one. A lot. And
part of me is still that desperately flatchested,
square torso-ed boy-shaped
girl. So when I see these womanly
mounds on my body, I do a silent
little touch-down celebration. Because
I wanted them for so long and they
finally arrived and they are beautiful.
So, no, I’m not lucky to be getting rid
of them. I’m lucky for the time I had
with them.
2) You should do [insert healthy
lifestyle choice]. I hear that helps
prevent breast cancer.
Well, if we knew how to prevent it, no
one would get it, right? I hate to be so
pessimistic, but, especially in women
with BRCA mutations, all of this
healthy-lifestyle-doing-yoga-drinkinggreen-tea-taking-vitamins,
seems like
tilting at windmills to me. But, I’ll
play along. So, to prevent cancer I
need to be healthy. But I already am.
Vegetarian? Check. Runner? Check.
Yogi? Check. Non-smoker? Check. I’m
doing all I can here, folks. I’m staring
down a 9 in 10 chance of getting breast
cancer. I wonder really what difference
it makes if I forgo that Diet Coke or
glass of white wine.
1) Don’t do anything drastic yet.
There will be a cure soon.
I sincerely hope you are right. And I
sincerely hope that in five, ten, twenty
years, prophylactic mastectomies
for high-risk women will seem as
draconian as bloodletting. But I’m not
going to stand around idly and wait
for miraculous medical advances. I’m
doing the best with the technology
and understanding we currently have.
Top Ten Things Young
Previvors (Probably)
Want to Hear
10) Is there anything I can do? Do
you need a ride anywhere?
Wanna grab a drink?
Continued on Page 35
30 Network News Winter/Spring 2010