Don't BRAC my Heart

Notes from Friday, 6/1

Good News!  The BRACAnalysis results came back negative, meaning Shermance doesn’t fall into the 10% category of women who have a hereditary predisposition for cancer.  If she had a positive result they would proactively treat for ovarian cancer (i.e. surgery) and might change the chemo.  Women with BRACAnalysis positive would also want to notify family members since the likelihood of cancer among that 10% is very high.  Shermance is among the 90% who randomly get cancer presumably due to environmental factors (the breast cancer fund).  It’s startling that 1 in 8 women in the US who are not genetically predisposed is expected to get the same bad news Shermance had about having breast cancer sometime in their lifetime (for men prostate cancer has about the same incident rate).  The doctors keep calling Shermance “so young” because most patients are older women since risk increases after age 55.  

All lab results are looking good.  This was the first time Shermance went alone to an oncologist appointment since I needed to catch up on work.  Shermance asked all the right questions and her body is reacting well to chemo.  The Newlasta is keeping her white blood cells high so her guard against infection or colds remains high.  As a result she may not require the standard weekly blood tests and has been given the OK to travel during the weeks off from chemo (every 3 weeks at this point). They do, however, want her to take yet another blood test for a different genetic marker called the BART test. 

That afternoon Shermance drove to Bastrop to meet our boys who have been staying with Shermance’s aunt this past week on the "animal farm" – 3 dogs, a cat, 8 chickens and no parakeets – since we have those at our house.  Our dog didn’t attack the chickens so all is well there.  Shermance’s white blood count was challenged, since her aunt was getting sick, but so far it hasn’t spread.  They hung out and watched movies that were the precursors to “The Avengers”, while I was back home in Round Rock making final preparations for the Quality Auditor 5-hour exam, Saturday morning.