Doing the Happy Ovary Dance

Today I went for the scariest medical test of my life: an ultrasound of my ovaries to look for ovarian cancer. It's one thing to have cancer somewhere that you can touch and feel, and another thing entirely to worry about what's lurking inside the depths of your abdomen, and await imaging studies to tell you if you're okay, or seriously not okay. Although it would be extremely unlikely to have BOTH breast and ovarian cancer at the same time, I had an insanely strong feeling that, because I have this BRCA mutation, I would have an ovarian tumor. It was really just a done deal in my mind. I was preparing myself for it so that I wouldn't pass out when they told me.

The ultrasound was done right in my OB's office. It was pretty fast, and while I was trying to peek at the screen, it was turned so that I couldn't quite see.  At the end, I asked the ultrasound tech to please see if my midwife, Lisa, could get the doctor to interpret my images now instead of calling me later on today. I felt like I couldn't breathe as we waited for about 15 minutes to see if that could happen. Thankfully, Lisa was able to do this for me, and came out to the waiting room smiling from ear to ear. She brought us into an exam room and told us that the ultrasound of my uterus and ovaries was completely normal, and my CA-125 test, which is a blood test used to detect ovarian cancer, was also normal. Between these two results she felt very good that I did not have ovarian cancer, but reiterated that once my breast cancer surgery/treatment is completely done, I should have my ovaries removed prophylactically. Apparently this surgery is laparascopic and the recovery is pretty easy, and I do not ever want to have cancer again, so I will be planning to do that this fall. I'm not super excited about early menopause, but hey, maybe I'd stop being so gosh darn cold all the time!

Tomorrow I have an appointment at a wig store to try on wigs. While we were out today, Kevin and I tried to check out another wig place that came up on a Google search. It was down in a very urban part of Albany, but I didn't think twice about the address until we got there. Let's just say, they didn't have any straight blonde wigs there. I hope we have better luck tomorrow!

My surgery is scheduled for Thursday, so I'm trying to rest, eat well, and prepare for being out of commission for a little while by getting the laundry and house in order. My mom and stepdad will arrive on Wednesday to help us out. I just can't wait to get this thing out of me that seems to be growing every day. Now that I know this is my only problem, I know I can do what I need to do to get it out, get through the chemo, get spayed, and move on with life. The continuous stream of letters, flowers, gifts and messages of encouragement and love has been just amazing. I am so lucky to be so loved.

The weather here today is gorgeous - sunny and 77 degrees. I can't wait to go get the girls from daycare and take them out for a nice walk before dinner!