The weight loss ticker at the right is malfunctioning, but I just had to share: I just weighed in at night at the same morning weight I had last week. And my night weight is 2 – 3 lbs heavier than my morning weight, which means that the 2 lb weight loss from last week is sticking. My goal was only 1 – 1.5 lbs per week, but it seems to be going faster than that. I’ll take it!

I thought chain restaurants were supposed to post their calorie counts? What’s up with that? I went to Baja Fresh today and they told me to go look on their website. No iphone here, sorry. You’d think they’d have a handout, but no. So I did my best to guess at what to order, chose chicken fajitas, and after 4 bites or so was very full. The salt content burned, and it turns out that the calorie count and the sodium count were sky high. No wonder I couldn’t eat much of it.

In the end though, my daily total was under 1600 calories, which is basically all I can eat without feeling terribly stuffed. Seems to be working in my favor though. If I hadn’t just had cancer-free chest and abdomen c/ts I might be worried, but since the scans were clear, I’m just going to go with it.

For tomorrow, lunch is planned. But any and all advice about where to eat out for low calorie meals and what to order is welcome.

Btw, will not bore you all with more blogging about weight loss – have moved all posts on that subject to my new favorite site: My Daily Plate at livestrong.com. It rocks.

Am really thankful for the LiveStrong Foundation’s “My Daily Plate” nutrient counter: today I had 1530 calories, and 51 grams of fat. And that was a day with what I felt like was a lot of food. Was bummed that there was dairy in my chicken tandoori. And who knew that the salt content of prawns was sky high? Overall, digestion felt pretty good though. Onwards.

Trying to eat a “low-fat” diet and figure out what that means, given that I feel icky after eating fatty meals. I stopped dairy and fried foods a while ago, but clearly other foods have fat in them as well. I think that my favorite nut butters may have to go.  A full serving (2 tbs) of salad dressing seems to be too much. 

My goal for this next week is to count fat grams in my diet.  Here are the 2000 calorie diet daily values:

I already avoid foods with trans (hydrogenated) fats.

Household lesson for tonight: Olive oil has 14 grams fat/tbs, peanut butter 16-25 grams/2 tbs.

To do: measure all oils/fats, and read labels.

It’s time to lose the 25+ lbs that packed on during radiation. Hence the weight loss ticker on the right. First step: accurate scale (done). Second step: athletic shoes.

Oh liver, why so gray? The other organs bounce bright white light around the C/T screen, but you, you sit there with fat throughout, listless.  Dull and aching.  Is it because you miss your friend estradiol?  Was it the short dance with tamoxifen?

“Kidneys, heart, pancreas — all beautiful,” the radiologist said.  I want you to be beautiful too, to shine.

What would make you happier? Regenerate?  A year ago you were fighting a benign tumor, now gone.  But this, this new state of grayness, not good my friend, not good.

So here’s what I promise you: canteens of clear water.  Exercise that makes the blood sing.  Fish oils.  The lecithin I crave (those “little nuts that taste like butter”).  More of the fruits and vegies that make everything better.  Fatty foods, eschewed.  Dairy, already gone.  Sylmarin, if it will help.  Astragalus, the same.  But my dear, I have to ask – the fear-assuaging zoladex and femara, do they too have to go?

So apparently the note in the file re: family history of ovarian cancer was “either uterine or ovarian cancer”  which is why it wasn’t reported to Myriad.  So, off to talk to family!  In a way, it’s a big relief….maybe there isn’t a history of ovarian cancer, wouldn’t that be nice?

So, I contacted Myriad to actually get the criteria for the BART, and this time was told that I would need two relatives with breast cancer under age 50 or ovarian cancer at any age.  My response: Check!  Got those.My aunt had breast cancer at 38 and my great aunt had ovarian cancer.  The other requirements were that they be on the same side of the family – check.  And at least one of them has to be a first or second degree relative – again, check.

However, Myriad had no info. in my file about the ovarian cancer, which is why they didn’t perform the BART automatically as part of the BRCA test in 2007.

This despite the fact that my great aunt’s ovarian cancer was in my genetic pedigree chart in 2004.  Sigh…..why that info wasn’t conveyed to Myriad I don’t know.  Or perhaps it was?  Have to hear all sides of the story first.

So here we go again, another round of questions and chasing down a corrected paper trail.  Who knows, maybe I’ll get free BART testing out of it, as it should have been done in 2007 as part of the BRCA test.

Am thinking of making a list of all the cancers as clearly the pedigree chart is either hard to read or it just doesn’t get read.  I can read it, but then I know the story.  But either way, it’s complicated, and a cheat sheet will hopefully result in fewer mistakes, as I have to give the history over and over again with every new scan, mammogram etc.

Sometimes I wish my self-advocacy gene didn’t kick into such full gear, with such a steel trap for critical details.  It causes me headaches.  Borrowing trouble, except that I can’t stand to have my head in the sand.  Scratchy.

The implication of all this, just so you all know the bottom line:  if for some remote reason the BART test does return BRCA positive, that increases the risks of breast/ovarian cancer by something like 60%.  Yikes.  So some choose double mastectomy, hysterectomy and oopherectomy as soon as they know and can do it.

Deep breaths – I’m going to assume that this will all turn out well.  Cross that bridge when it comes.  In the meantime, fight for the right to have bridges.

The answer to my question a few days ago is: No.  Myriad Lab’s brca 5-site rerrangement panel does NOT include the BART (BRACAnalysis® Rearrangement Test).  I myself called Myriad and was told that I did not receive the BART test, and then I got a letter from my (former) HMO’s genetic counseling department saying that I did.

I called the counselor and said that I was confused by the conflicting info., and to her credit, she called Myriad who confirmed what I was told – no BART test was done for me.

However, whereas Myriad had told me that I met the criteria for the BART test, they told the counselor that I did not.  So now that’s a new question.

Moral of the story: if you’re seeing a genetic counselor for breast cancer risk screening, see one who specializes in breast cancer.   The one that I talked to does all sorts of genetic counseling screening, so isn’t as familiar with the breast cancer screening tests.  She thanked me for giving her the opportunity to learn something new.  No problem, I’m sure that my persistence will help other women who go through her department.

My medical geekiness showed its colors today.  Last night, at the Young Survivors Sunday Starbucks group an amazing guest speaker mentioned the BART test for those who had tested BRCA negative.  So, I dug out my trusty notebook of lab results, flipped to the genetics section and found my Mar 2007 “Comprehensive BRACAnalysis.”  It lists the testing done as a “5-site rearrangement panel.”

Even with the technical specs, I can’t tell if this includes the BART or not. So I called Myriad Labs and they’re calling me back tomorrow.  We’ll see.

Breastcancer.org forum participants assumed both that the 5-site included the BART, and that it didn’t.  Confusing.

It’s important, because for those of us who test BRCA negative,  “approximately 8.8% of individuals who meet…[a certain] …family history criteria will have a mutation detected by BART.” (For that link, scroll down to “8/1/2006 Further Enhancement to Genetic Testing of the BRCA1 / BRCA2 Genes.”)

I’m still mad about the whole genetic testing thing because I saw a genetic counselor BEFORE I got breast cancer.  The statistical models at the time indicated that I was at no more risk than normal, to my huge relief.  I knew better than to believe it, but I did because I so wanted to.

The facts point in an all together different risk direction: my mom, my aunt, their dad and mom, and their mom’s sisters (=my great aunts) between them have had 8 breast cancers, 1 ovarian cancer, 1 endometrial cancer and 1 colon cancer.  Yes, some of it was, in genetics-counseling speak, “age-appropriate,” but still.  Eeeks, right?!

And yes I’m posting more this month, in honor of NaBloPoMo and the onslaught of breast-cancer awareness that is October.  If ya can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.