…comes in threes?
I had some crappy news last week.
The first was the not unfamiliar announcement that there are impending redundancies at work, and we won’t actually know if we have jobs in September, until decisions are made. Great. As the main breadwinner, that’s potentially utterly disastrous.
The second was a very stressful phone call from my doctor-daughter: we found out recently that a close relative has a particularly virulent strain of breast cancer. Doc-D works in oncology, so was immediately very worried, and asked me about any family history. I knew that there’d been 2 other instances on their father’s side, but knew no more than that.
When she rang back, it turns out that have been AT LEAST 6 other cases in the close family, and that all in all that puts all my kids on a 50% likelihood of developing one of the related cancers. So at 29, and not yet having had any kids of her own, she’s considering preventative hysterectomy and mastectomy.
I’m reeling.
Not really expecting any useful comments on this, just needed to get it off my chest. Sorry!
thedementedfairy 
Omg. I’m so sorry you are going through all this. How awful for you all.
Isn’t Doc Daughter going to have the gene test though?
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She will be having the test, but I think she’s preparing herself mentally beforehand. As a family, we’re not inclined towards optimism, past experience hasn’t encouraged it…she sounded OK-ish when I spoke to her yesterday, and her new boyfriend is being great. Thing is, they haven’t been together long, and it’s serious stuff to test a new relationship on. Ah well
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It never rains but it damn well pours does it? Poor you. 😦
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My thoughts are with you and your family DF, it’s lousy news on both counts and nothing anyone can do or say will help. Don’t forget that we are here if you need a rant, shout at us if it helps, we won’t mind. There are times when life seems so unfair.
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Dear Fairy, I’m so sorry to read this. Nothing like kicking you when you’re already down! Everything crossed that your doc daughter won’t have the faulty genes. Xxx
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How horrible. A colleague at work developed breast cancer at 41 and had a very strong family history of breast and ovarian cancer, including her own mum who died at a simile age. With two young daughters she had the gene test and was negative- her cancer was just bad luck ( and thus far successfully treated). So fingers crossed but it’ll be a nerve wracking waiting for the results. X
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Damn those BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes!
Our poor kid has cancer from my family and heart from his father’s – hence the saying – live for today!
We too here are facing loads of redundancies and I’m the breadwinner too – Elaine, don’t worry until it happens – then there’ll be lots of time to fret – see above!
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I try not to worry, but my bloody brain decides to do it at 3 in the morning…hard to get off the hook then. Ah well. As for the cancer threat, tbh I can manage an ostrich impression for now, with the knowledge that I’ll be there for them if anything happens.
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Really sorry to hear your news DF. Fingers crossed for some sort of positive outcome on the health front.
As to redundancies, if anyone is bonkers enough to try to make you redundant at least you are in maths where the job situation is usually pretty good although it’s always a pain applying for new jobs etc etc. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.
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Not a lot you can say about that sort of new Elaine, but life is just plain shitty at times.
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Indeed. I keep thinking- ah well, there’s only so much that can happen to one person, but I really should know better. My life is a [bad] soap opera.
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Not totally bad Elaine – you’ve got your lovely wife – you are not on your own to deal with this.
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And she’s amazing. xxx
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Recently lost a friend to cervical cancer, there’s a lot of it in her family and a genetic link seems indicated (long story) but the family won’t mention it to those at risk… very sorry your daughter is facing this, but glad she gets to make an informed decision. Sending you all good vibes.
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So sorry about your news, I think this knowledge is power and this will help you all in the future, but it won’t help the worrying at 3am, all best wishes
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Just checked in, Elaine. That is grim news, indeed, for your children. As a ‘cancer doctor’, doc-D will be all too aware of how things might pan out. Keeping fingers crossed that test comes out negative.
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Thanks Pamela
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