- By Randalynn Vasel
- Posted September 5, 2017
5 Ways my Friends and Family are Helping my Kids While I Battle Ovarian Cancer
Battling ovarian cancer is HARD. It’s humbling and some days it forces you to use every ounce of energy you have to lift your head off the pillow. Ovarian cancer doesn’t discriminate and hits out of nowhere, with no warning. As a mother of two young children, it wasn’t just difficult for me - the diagnosis, surgeries and treatment affected…
- By Cynthia Rigali Lund
- Posted June 8, 2017
Things I Know for Sure this Cancer Survivors Month
*Editor’s Note: June is National Cancer Survivors Month, and Ambry Genetics will be celebrating cancer survivors as well as their families and communities by sharing their inspiring stories. Although part of me wants to forget, I hear the whispers every day. As a cancer survivor of 4 ½ years, June is a special month that commemorates…
- By Cynthia Rigali Lund
- Posted February 2, 2017
Additional Healing Methods to Fight Cancer: Your Local Community Center
Cancer is an equal opportunity disease: It affects people regardless of age, gender, socioeconomic background or race. One day, you may be walking along, seemingly healthy as a horse and the next day—you’re diagnosed with cancer. Your outlook may be bleak; it might be optimistic. Either way, as the person diagnosed, it’s a feeling of being…
- By Cynthia Rigali Lund
- Posted December 1, 2016
Despite Cancer, Holiday Abundance Awaits
Editor's Note: This is a continuation of Cynthia's initial experience of being diagnosed with hereditary ovarian cancer in 2012, which she began to tell us in her post from September 29, 2016. With an October diagnosis, the holiday season was going to be a new experience for our family of five. Although difficult in many ways, cancer…
- By Cynthia Rigali Lund
- Posted September 29, 2016
In The Beginning: My Ovaries Were Talking, but I Wasn't Listening
What a perfect time to begin my story — we are in the middle of National Ovarian Cancer Awareness month, as well as National HBOC (hereditary breast and ovarian cancer) Week. I love when things line up like it was all meant to be… Things did not line up for me in October of 2012. While preparing funeral arrangements for my dad who…
- By Theresa Smith
- Posted March 8, 2016
These are my genetic test results... please don't shoot the messenger.
The initial shock from receiving my positive results for the BRCA2 gene mutation was now turning into "a low grade fever" of concern, which was my new reality. I already explained the news to my immediate family, but I started thinking about all the extended family members my result could affect, too. My extended family is large - over…
- By Dr. Robina Smith
- Posted January 28, 2016
Preventive Oncology
To this date, we cannot totally prevent cancer from forming; however, for certain cancers we can reduce the risk of it developing. Approximately one half of cancer cases can be prevented by modifying risk factors or by early detection of precancerous lesions. For breast and ovarian cancers, approximately 10% will develop due to hereditary predisposition.…
- By Theresa Smith
- Posted January 26, 2016
You want to take my ovaries out?
I was diagnosed with a BRCA2 gene mutation on August 1, 2013. My surgery for a complete preventive hysterectomy (to remove my ovaries, Fallopian tubes, cervix, and uterus) was just six weeks later on September 11. I requested to undergo BRCA1/2 genetic testing as a “tie breaker” to help me decide if I should have the surgery,…
- By Theresa Smith
- Posted January 14, 2016
Watching and Waiting for Cancer
So I met all the doctors. What now? All the information and options were given to me, and it was overwhelming, to say the least. I was considering both preventive surgeries (full hysterectomy and preventive bilateral mastectomy (PBM) with reconstruction). I was playing the “odds versus timing” game in my head: “If I wait until I’m X years…
- By Dr. Robina Smith
- Posted January 13, 2016
Understanding Screening Guidelines
Cancer is smarter than man. It develops whenever it wants to without asking for permission from us. That is a fact. However, medicine has evolved over centuries to the point that we can predict which population is at risk for certain cancers. We have also developed processes that allow for us to check for the presence of cancer. This is the process…