I need to thank three amazing women–Jessica, Hilary, and Stephanie–for sharing their stories with me.  Their stories (below) helped me make the difficult decision to do the surgery, and also helped me know what to expect during the recovery.  Their willingness to share their entire story and experience–down to the most minute and gruesome detail– has been more beneficial than anything my surgeons and genetic counselors could have prepared me with.  All three are incredibly strong, kind, and positive individuals. You share a special bond having gone through similar procedures and everyone has this willingness and desire to pay it forward.

Stephanie – Breast Cancer Survivor/Bilateral Mastectomy

Stephanie was the first woman I spoke with.  Stephanie is a petite, beautiful, smiley, bad-ass attorney that was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 25 and underwent a bilateral mastectomy (she’s 28 now).  Stephanie also went to Wash U and was a year ahead of me.  My best friend from Wash U, Lisa, knew Stephanie and, when I found out I carried the BRCA2 gene, Lisa recommended I reach out to her.  About a year and a half ago I messaged Stephanie and she immediately replied that she’d love to share her experience with me.  We spent a few hours over sushi at Mirai (delicious) where she walked me through her story, starting with when she found out she had cancer all the way through how she was doing now.  She literally covered every detail; nothing was too personal.  It was an incredibly eye-opening and helpful conversation and I distinctly remember her saying something along the lines of “if your biggest fear or thing holding you back from doing the surgery is fear of the surgery itself, then you should do it. I wish I had that option where now I will always have the chance of a recurrence.”  Stephanie had her last chemo treatment EOY 2013 and is still doing great.  She got married this year and is kicking ass and taking names as an associate with a highly reputable law firm here in Chicago. She came over to eat and hang out tonight, and it was great hearing how she’s doing now and how her recovery process is going.

Jessica – BRCA Carrier/Prophylactic Bilateral Mastectomy

The next woman that I spoke with was Jessica, a BRCA carrier who underwent a prophylactic bilateral mastectomy in her 30s.  A good friend of mine from college, Ben, is Jessica’s cousin and put us in touch as he knew that she recently had the procedure and that I had scheduled mine.  Around mid-August of this year, we finally connected on the phone and ended up talking for a few hours.  At this time, Jessica  was exactly five weeks post-surgery and had just been cleared to do laundry and open her refrigerator door (those two facts clearly stuck with me).   Upon learning she was BRCA positive, Jessica knew she would get the surgery at some point and it was more a matter of when. She’s married with two little boys, so finding the right time to be out of commission for weeks had to be incredibly difficult. She also shared her full experience, thoughts, emotions, etc. She is now back and working out almost to her former full ability, although she described some exercises as being just a bit too weird of a feeling so she avoids them (e.g., push-ups), but she is doing great and is very happy she got the surgery.

Hilary – Breast Cancer Survivor/Bilateral Mastectomy

The last woman I spoke to is Hilary, who had low stage breast cancer and underwent a bilateral mastectomy in September 2014.  A good friend of mine from West Point, Sam, put us in touch.  Sam knew about my upcoming surgery, and when he heard that Hilary had undergone a similar procedure a year ago, he asked her if she’d be willing to speak to me. He described her as a “dominantly beautiful woman with an insatiable drive for success. Wife and mother of three who is commonly referred to as the ‘cancer ninja’, as she is a two time cancer survivor.”  We had been texting for awhile and finally synced up on a call about a week and a half before my surgery.  She also shared her full history and any pointers and advice with me in terms of what to expect pre- and post-op. She forwarded me some pictures of what it looked like a week out and then more recently which was incredibly helpful (I ended up texting her a picture earlier this week to see if something was normal and she was able to calm me down by showing how she had the same thing, totally fine). She has a blog as well which is pretty amazing, particularly to learn about her full story.