The test

Hello everyone; my name is Allegra. I'm in my early 20's and this year I went to get genetic testing done for the BRCA 1 genetic mutuation. To give a little history my grandmother on my mom's side was 47 when she dies of ovarian cancer, which is very young in terms of that particular cancer. Then mother was 35 when she was first diagnosies with breat cancer, then again shortly after her 40th birthday it metatstisized into her spine and she was given only 5 years to live. She herself was recomended to take the BRCA genetic test, and showed up positive. By the grace of God she is still with me today it has been nearly 7 years since the terminal diagnosis. She is now the House manager at Sorentino's Compassion House, a home in Edmonton Alberta Canada that provides a home away from home for women and their companions to stay while going to the Cross Canacer Institue in Edmonoton for chemo and radiation therapy. She is making a difference in many womens lives by sharing her stories, photo's, and of course a shoulder to cry on. I would like to do the same thing for young girls who are BRCA positive in Canada.
This blog is meant to be a source of strength, reflection, and inspiration. I feel that this diagnosis is a "crystal ball" giving a glimps of the potential future, I've always maintained an active and health lifestyle and incorporated physical examinations both by myself and by a physicain, but there are some scary choice that are in the near future that I will eventually have to make, and so will other girls with this gene.
If you don't know about the course of observa tion once you have been identified as BRCA + here is an example, at 25 they sugest breast MRI's once a year and mammography 6 months after each MRI and then self examination and every 3 months it is suggested to get a physician to do a quick breast examination. lots of Dr visits, but I don't mind i'm months away from graduating with my BN in nursing so it will be easy to go on a luch break to get "felt-up" (lol) or scanned at the hospital.
I believe that humor, friendship, and community is key to making the gene tolerable. I encourage anyone who is interested in this BRCA gene to look it up, its very interesting and amazing to see how far science and medicine has come that they can give us this window into our future.