The Dream Team Part 1- Dr. Amer Karam

Now before anyone gets too excited and wants to book an appointment, Dr. Karam has recently moved to Stanford and is doing some pretty amazing work there. Stanford, count your blessings. You've got one of the best docs out there. I guess this kind of speaks to how blessed I was to have such a great surgeon. It seriously was as if God had compiled a list of everything I could have possibly needed in a doctor taking care of this part of my health and sent someone to med school to become that doctor/ surgeon. You can check out his pretty impressive résumé here. For those aspiring to enter the world of gynecology or gynecologic oncology more specifically, the bar has been set- high. Ok I'll stop bragging now (did I mention STANFORD?!).

The First Appointment

So I guess the day I had always intended to put off into the WAY distant future, had to come a little early. It was the day that I stepped into UCLA's OB/GYN suite for the first time. Because of the risk of breast cancer, the genetic counselors referred me to Dr. Karam, a gynecologic oncologist, in order to begin surveillance for any suspicious signs of early-onset breast cancer.

This was the day that I heard the words "preventative mastectomy" for the first time, especially in the context of my treatment plan. There were still a lot of things that needed to be thought out, and balancing my breast cancer risk with my other health issues proved to be quite the juggling act. That being said, once I heard that the mastectomy didn't need to be performed immediately it became pretty easy to push this to the back of my mind in lieu of other screenings that were more necessary. I did have my first breast exam that day, which pretty much showed me I had no idea what I was doing with my own "self exams" (I highly recommend asking the pros how to perform these self exams correctly). All in all, this is pretty high up on the list of most emotional and brain-frying appointments I've had to date (and trust me, I've had a lot).

The Decision
Fast-forward six months, and I'm back for my second bi-annual professional breast exam. Now that all the immediate tests had been conducted, we had a better picture of where my health and risk stood. The focus now shifted to the breast cancer risk. I heard those words again "preventative mastectomy", except now I could really tell that Dr. Karam was serious about this.When he mentioned an 80-90% risk of developing breast cancer before age 30, I saw  I really had two options: 
1) have the prophylactic (preventative) mastectomy now
2) get breast cancer and have the surgery with possible chemotherapy later

It was pretty clear which option I had to choose


Why Now?!
If you're wondering why I made the decision to do it now, I basically asked myself why NOT now. If you would like to see the bullet-point list of my though process and why I recommend it to any young woman who is at high risk, here it goes

1. First and foremost, I don't have cancer- yet. Having a mastectomy prophylactically really opens up the options for both me and my surgeons. It gives me the best shot at the most normal result.
2. Yes I'm 19, but that just means I jump back from surgery that much quicker and can recover that much more easily.
3. I don't have a family to take care of yet, so my energies aren't torn between taking care of a family and taking care of myself.
4. I have no other responsibilities. I can more easily take time to recover now before I gain the responsibilities of work and graduate studies.
5. I can mooch off the parentals a little while longer (every college-student's dream). As much independence as I'm just starting to gain at this point, there is no better nurse than mom.

and with that, my decision was made and I was off to start the process of my medical leave for recovery.