Em's Health Background

[Chris] For anyone who might not have known the details of Em's health over the past few years, here is a short catch-me-up...

Before Em was born, her 1yo sister, April, died of a brain tumor. When Em was 7yo her 16yo brother, Adam, died of bone cancer he had developed from a brain tumor found when he was 10yo. Em's mom has had two types of breast cancer, lung cancer, and is undergoing chemo for pancreatic cancer at the time of this post. A couple of years ago we found out that this is all because of Li Fraumeni Syndrome and found out that Em also has this genetic mutation.

As a result, Em has dozens of appointments and screenings every year so that we can catch anything that develops at an early stage. A few of these screenings revealed that she had a tumor in her breast in the summer of 2010. The doctors said they didn't think it would be anything but it turned out to be a malignant phyllodes tumor. Because of the risk of this tumor returning and her risk of developing a future breast cancer Em, myself, and the doctors agreed to do bilateral mastectomies. That surgery was in August of 2010. Em was in the hospital for a week, has no memory of the first three weeks at home, and then began the long process of recovery and reconstruction. I'll let her write about that, but suffice it to say, it's not quick or easy.

She is healthy now but we never get away from it, cancer is part of our lives. We are constantly reminded of this by her ongoing screenings, her mom's health, and our discussions about having kids (we would have a 50/50 chance of passing it on to kids we had naturally). This is one of our ongoing adventures; it has occasionally beat us down but we are stronger and closer because of it.