Our mother was a terrific woman, but she was taken too soon at the age of 55. She had breast cancer 6 times, 4 of the 6 were metastatic. She was first diagnosed in 1992, at the age of 45, with stage IV breast cancer. The tumor was the size of a soft ball, she had a lumpectomy, to remove the cancer, and chemotherapy afterwards to remove the root that had dug into her chest wall. In 1995 she was again diagnosed with breast cancer. The tumor was the size of an egg. She then had a radical mastectomy and followed up with another round of chemo. In 1998 she was again diagnosed with breast cancer it appeared in her mastectomy scar and had metastasized into her shoulder. She had Radiation for this go round, from her shoulder down to her waist. Shortly after cancer # 3, she found out that her heart was only functioning at 10% of what it should be, the doctors gave her a week to live, but she outlived that expiration date. FFW to early 2001, she was, again, diagnosed with cancer. It was in her breast bone, so again more radiation, then later that year it was in her arm, so chemo and radiation, and the last time was in her tail bone. Our mom died on August 25th 2002 from heart failure, cancer free. She was tired of fighting, so she stopped the heart treatments she was getting every 3 months, and said her goodbye’s, she lasted 6 more months after her last treatment. If the cancer didn’t kill her, the treatments did. She was told that, according to her chart, after her first round of chemo her heart was only operating at 50%, except no one told her until it was down to 10%. I was recently diagnosed with the BRCA2 gene mutation in 2015, just before I turned 45. I know I got it from my mother, given what she went through, I felt the best way to not get metastatic cancer was to not get cancer. I took action. My breasts are fake, but still all me, and my uterus, ovaries and Fallopian tubes are gone. I am a previvor. My sister will, hopefully be getting tested soon.
