Impending PBM

In ten days I will undergo a prophylactic bilateral mastectomy (PBM). Really. Yes, it is pretty drastic. Severe. Horrible sounding. I am at peace with my decision, though. Here is why:

I am BRCA 1 positive.  This gives me an extraordinarily high risk of developing breast and/or ovarian cancer.  It is not a guarantee, however.  The approximations are thus: I have up to an 87 percent likelihood of developing breast cancer, and up to a 60 percent likelihood of developing ovarian cancer.

After I made my decision to undergo a prophylactic salpingo-oophorectomy (ovaries and tubes removed) and a PBM, I found this tool created by Stanford:

http://brcatool.stanford.edu/brca.html

It simply reinforced my choice.

In August of 2012 I had my ovaries and tubes removed.

Over the last several weeks I have been readying myself to have the double mastectomy.  I have scoured the web in search of other women like me and have found a great amount of first hand experience. The women who have preceded me on this journey have provided me with invaluable support and direction.  One piece of advice I am heeding is to blog about my process.  So here goes.