familyI did not sleep again – you may be sick of reading this, I am certainly sick of writing it! The pain in my back and legs is just ridiculous. I was awake most of the night watching pre recorded TV episodes of the block. Thanks good ness I have something I enjoy to watch!

I find that my sister has hardly slept either, what a sorry pair we are. She is into the coffee. It’s times like this I get a little jealous that I don’t drink it anymore. Those mornings when you are literally dragging my sorry butt along the hallway, I would love a coffee. Green tea just does not do it lovely!

I get Sam to his first day of Year 8;  he’s not a happy camper 🙁 I need to buy new uniforms from the school, have acupuncture, see the genetic counsellor and then take my sister to the train afterwards. A typical day of madness in the life and times of Kylie Warry.

We make it to the genetic counsellor. My other sister comes also to help with facts and figures. Being the youngest there is a lot of info missing from my experience. There are 18 years between the oldest sister and me.  There are 10 years between my closest sister and I.  Being the baby for so long I was left out of a lot of family conversations.  It is also really personal and important for us all to understand what the implications are for us as we all have our own families now too.

It was a good session, but there is a lot to consider. I didn’t realise that in one of my sisters’s family there are BRCA genes on her husband’s side. This makes her so fearful for her daughter. However, her daughter does not wish to know the genetic status and would rather keep an eye on herself, have regular checks and stay healthy.

This is another perfect example of how different each person’s response and journey is. Regardless of whether you agree or not, it is the right of each of us to do with this information what is right for us. One of my sisters feels fearful with this information, I feel empowered, one of my other sisters feels really overwhelmed. We are all soooo different.

However, before the cancer appeared in my body I did not want to know the genetic information, I felt it would worry me into cancer. If you are facing this or know someone who is, please support them to make the decision that is right for them. It is not black and white or clean cut, it is deeply personal and I don’t think anyone has the right to force a direction on the another person.

My sister who has had cancer also is really emotional through the meeting, she keeps saying hat have I given my kids. I said to her “would you say this to our Mum?” She replied “of course not,” so the why do we do this to ourselves? Every person is in the genetic lottery really.

When the Genetic Counsellor first meets us she says “are you all sisters?” We answer in proud unison “yes”.  She then says, “oh wow, I would never have thought that from a genetic perspective.”  What the heck does that mean?  We let that one go through to the keeper.  I think each of us was to afraid to ask more about that.

At the end of the session, the genetic counsellor says to us openly, “even if it is not BRCA1 or 2, there’s something genetic going on.” I think we all thought that, but she explained that because each of us has been diagnosed under 50 years it means the cancer is genetic and being switched on by something.

Apart from the subject matter, I had such a lovely day with my sisters. We always manage to find something to laugh about. The test has been done, I had the Pathologist from hell but that is another story so watch this space. I am exhausted and fall into bed contemplating all that has happened.