Seems funny I would choose to name my blog Teal Ribbon and use a purple background~~fact is, I like purple better, simple and plain.
Teal ribbon is for ovarian cancer. My grandmother had it and made it only 18 months~~give or take~~my mom had it and three years later we cheer every time her test results come back and they show negative results. I have not had cancer~~ovarian or any other for that matter.
Last summer, summer of 2010, I had the BRCA testing and was found to be positive for the BRCA gene, right now I don't remember which one~~there are two~~but suffice it to say that the risk of cancer, both ovarian and breast was so great that I decided to have surgery.
For my family, the decision was a "no brainer"~~we weighed the pros and cons of menopause VS. cancer and menopause won out. My surgeon told me about two surgeries I could have: the surgery I had was a prophylactic bilateral salpingo oophorectomy. The surgeon took out both of my ovaries and fallopian tubes. INSTANT menopause!! I opted not to have the second surgery she asked me about: prophylactic bilateral mastectomy--that would have involved removing both breasts and reconstruction surgery. Prophylactic, for those who don't know, just means preventative.
Doing just the BSO took my risk of ovarian cancer down to almost something like 2%--I don't have the organs that would cause the cancer. It took my breast cancer risk down to almost 25%--a percentage I can live with, for now.
It's kind of odd to tell people about this surgery. They tend to think hysterectomy. Well, it's kind of like a hysterectomy in reverse--the surgeons take the uterus and cervix in a hysterectomy and leave the ovaries and fallopian tubes if they can; in my case the surgeon left my uterus and cervix and took the ovaries and fallopian tubes.
Menopause.....what can I say?
It's what I have to deal with now.
But, thankfully, not cancer.
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