three days

"A previvor is a survivor of a predisposition to cancer. The term specifically applies to the portion of our community that has its own needs and concerns separate from the general population, and different from those already diagnosed with cancer."

I honestly have NO clue how this is going to turn out, or what is going to come out during this journey. I do know that I have tons to say. This is me, at my lowest. All I ask is that if you are reading this, try to take a short walk in my shoes. I guess I should start with a short Intro, I'm Kionte (key-on-tay) yes, "like the wine" lol. I am 24, a RN, & BRCA 2 positive. BRCA 2 is a gene, a tumor suppressor gene my BRCA 2 gene is "messed up" which puts my chance of getting breast cancer (BC) @ somewhere around 84% and ovarian cancer around 27%... The people with a not "messed up" gene have a 7% chance! I don't wanna go too much into my family because this is ultimately about me but I will say my grandmother had breast cancer that reoccurred on the opposite side, and my aunt found her breast cancer @ 31 years old, she is also BRCA 2 positive, as well as my mom. I got my test results about a month ago, and I already knew what I wanted to do about it. In 3 days I am having a nipple sparing prophylactic bilateral mastectomy with reconstruction. In other words, they are taking all of the tissue out of my breast and putting implants instead. If that makes sense??? I know that some people don't understand why I am making such a "drastic" decision at such a "young" age but this is me MY life MY choice... I saw something when I was looking up BC stuff and it said something to the affect of "you wouldn't run in the middle of the street if you had an 84% chance of getting hit by a car" :)

So here I am sitting on my couch 3 days before surgery, pretty dang sad. Just to put it out there I am not sad because I am loosing my boobs, they are super small anyways... lol but I am sad because I had to make this choice. Okay maybe scratch that, I don't have to have this surgery, I could wait & have extra screening but that just wasn't an option for me. I didn't want to wake up everyday (like I have for the past month) and think about getting BC. IT SUCKS! I promise it does! Today at work we had a "kionte's pre surgery celebration extravaganza" my coworkers got me a red velvet cake, and famous daves BBQ for lunch! ohhhh how I love them! Such a bittersweet day!

It took me no time to find my plastic surgeon (PS), as I asked a general surgeon at my job and she knew just the one! So last Tuesday 2/14 I met with him, then later that day I went and met with a general surgeon, both were so personal, and sat down and asked me about what I was looking for, what I wanted my new ones to look like and how soon I wanted this done. I was hoping for an end of March 1st of April date but  2/22 came up, and it was either 2/22 or 3/27. I figured the sooner the better! Plus my younger sister was born 2/22/92 and my date is 2/22/12 kinda perfect right?

My plan is to write as often as possible and be as open as ever! I am sure I will have some bad days but, I will try to be as positive as possible with the help of my family, friends, coworkers, and other previvors. I have read so many blogs, and I every single one has touched me in some way, I just hope I can do the same.