00:00Today I feel really wound up.
00:05I could barely sleep last night.
00:06It was kind of similar to like when you wake up on Christmas morning
00:09and you're like, is it time yet? Is it time? Is it time?
00:13So tomorrow is my preventative double mastectomy.
00:27I feel like I'm ready.
00:28Are you ready?
00:30Nope.
00:31Yeah, I know.
00:34I'm as ready as I think I could possibly be though.
00:36As ready as Comet is to go to the dog park.
00:38If we rewind a lot, I have always had a history of cancer in my family.
00:45So when my dad was diagnosed with cancer, I was, it wasn't that much of a surprise.
00:52The surprising part is that it was really aggressive and they caught it
00:57when it was already stage four metastatic prostate cancer.
01:04So my dad is my best friend.
01:08He's been my hero basically since I was a little kid.
01:13It's been the hardest hurdle task of my life to see him get sick and to see him go through
01:21treatment.
01:22I love you.
01:23I know what I love you too.
01:24Okay.
01:26Oh, I'm messing up your hat.
01:28That's okay.
01:29So when I called him and told him that I'm BRCA positive, he was devastated.
01:43So I think the first time I heard about BRCA was when Angelina Jolie had her preventative double mastectomy.
01:51Angelina Jolie told the world in a New York Times piece that she carries a genetic mutation.
01:55In 2013, she had both breast removed and underwent reconstructive surgery.
02:02There are plastic surgery studies that show that when Angelina Jolie announced that she had a genetic mutation
02:07and was having mastectomies, the number of mastectomies and women undergoing genetic testing really jumped.
02:13I'm also seeing a lot more women in their 20s and 30s who they've seen family members get cancer,
02:18seeing people potentially even die of breast cancer, and they do not want to ever be in that place.
02:29My lifetime risk of getting breast cancer is 87%.
02:34My lifetime risk of getting ovarian cancer is a little over 30%.
02:39So I have six different meds.
02:42I truly have never once in this process questioned whether a mastectomy is the right thing for me.
02:52I spent weeks going through it and interviewing surgeon offices and being told many times,
02:59we can't meet with you because you don't have breast cancer, or you're too young, you don't need to be
03:06thinking about this.
03:07And being told just no.
03:09So it took a lot of just advocating for myself to be heard.
03:14So I'll make two lists.
03:16You do not need a sleeping pad.
03:18My bag and your bag.
03:20I want my robe, my drain belt.
03:28Wedge pillow.
03:30I don't know what it's going to be like after my mastectomy and reconstruction.
03:34I have no idea how long it'll take for me to heal.
03:38I mean, I have some vague idea, but I don't know what I'm going to look like really.
03:42And I do absolutely feel nervous about that.
03:45I'd be lying if I said I didn't.
03:52Can you tell me your full name and date of birth?
03:54Serafina Nance 32593.
03:57Alright, what are we doing for you today?
03:58Bilateral double mastectomy.
04:00Yes, with?
04:02With nerve grafting.
04:03Yes, and implant reconstruction.
04:05Yes.
04:06Okay.
04:07Taylor will take great care of her.
04:09I had my first surgery in August, which was a breast reduction in order to prime the pocket of the
04:17breast.
04:17Most women don't have any sensation in their breasts after a mastectomy.
04:22So that's another reason why I went with my surgeon is she's pioneering this incredible kind of opportunity for women
04:29to regain sensation.
04:31It's happening. We're doing it.
04:33We're doing it.
04:35You can follow me.
04:36Bye. Love you.
04:38Love you too.
04:41Sort of the novel thing we did today is nerve-preserving and sensation-preserving mastectomies.
04:50So we keep as many of the nerves as we can, and then the ones that we can't, we end
04:54up using a nerve graft to connect to under the nipple.
04:57We then did immediate one-stage breast reconstruction.
05:08Hello.
05:10It's a party. I love it.
05:12Is that okay?
05:13Yes. Have fun.
05:15All right. Here we go.
05:17Hi.
05:19I feel so proud of myself.
05:21Taylor was like, how do you feel? I was like, so proud.
05:25It's done.
05:27It did it.
05:29We did it.
05:30No, you did it.
05:31We did it.
05:32You.
05:38After I got my mastectomy, my risk went down from 87% to less than the general population, which is
05:458%.
05:46You can see, like, the right there is where the drain was. That's the hole.
05:52I have full sensation in my right, on my right side.
05:56And on my left side, I have, like, sensation in half to three quarters of my breast.
06:03I'm really, really thrilled with how they look and how they feel.
06:07This is my body now. Like, this is what it's going to be like. And I'm excited to, like, kind
06:14of get to know it.
06:18Closed as this chapter is, in terms of breast cancer, my BRCA, like, chapter is not closed.
06:24In a couple of years, I will also remove my ovaries because I'm at risk for ovarian cancer.
06:30I've talked to, you know, a lot of women and men who are scared to go get genetic testing.
06:38And it is scary. That knowledge is definitely a burden and it's hard.
06:43But I think, personally, I would way rather know and use that knowledge to empower me and my decisions.
