After months of will-she-or- won't-she back and forth, I finally decided to head to the Philadelphia area FORCE meeting. For those not in the know, FORCE stands for "facing our risk of cancer empowered." It's for folks with high incidences of familial breast or ovarian cancers, or those with a determined genetic risk.
The short version: I went. It was great. I learned a lot and got to see what my boobs will look like. I got paired with a buddy for surgery.
It was sort of crazy to be with a group of women who stared down the same decisions and dealt with the same concerns. Since I've found out about the surgical option, not having it has never been an option. To hear others voice this certainty was miraculous to me, always the skeptic.
It seems that once many of us had sat by someone's (or multiple someone's) bedsides while they fought cancer, the option to "wait and see" seemed almost dangerous.
The three hours flew by.
My surgery is one month from today. I am not afraid at all.
