In October of 2013, I had an abnormal mammogram. As I was looking up the terms used by the radiologist for what he was seeing in my films, I happened to run across an article discussing the genetic link between breast cancer and pancreatic cancer. My dad died of pancreatic cancer about a year ago and his brother died of it the summer before that. Their sister and mother both had bilateral breast cancers. Bilateral breast cancers strongly indicate a genetic link, particularly

The day after my 38th birthday, I went into menopause. Surgical menopause. Four years after healing from cancer, and two years after losing my mother, it was time to put into action the plan that my healthcare team, my husband, and I had decided after my first mastectomy: when I was finished nursing my daughter, I would remove my left breast, ovaries, and tubes. This was something in my mother’s final weeks that she also asked of me. She had fought breast cancer. Her mot