Mrs B has an unusual and rare gene which makes her extremely susceptable to both Breast & Ovarian Cancers.
A few weeks ago we had an appointment with one of the breast specialists up at the hospital and it was quite a shock. Because of the gene she has, there is an 80% chance of her getting breast cancer, significantly higher than anyone without this gene. And because of the aggressive nature of Breast Cancer, if she gets it, because of the gene there is a knock-on effect which means that all her other cells then are equally likely to become cancerous. Therefore waiting to get the cancer and then having a mastectomy is pretty pointless, as the cancer will then take over and attack any other cells in the body. This is exactly what happened to her Aunt, who having conquered BC then succumbed to 2 different types of cancer because of the same unusual gene.
Unfortunately the likely scenario is major preventative surgery (I won't go into hefty details here) but it basically means a double mastectomy followed by reconstructive surgery. Options are available from using her own tissue from elsewhere (belly) to silicon implants (no size increases though).
Tomorrow it's the first appointment up at the breast clinic (of course it's not the local hospital, but is instead an hour away during rush hour...) so am feeling very thoughful.
Although she does not have Cancer, the stuff she is having to go through is just so mind-boggling horrible. We've got some tough days ahead.
