Telluride Daily Planet, Friday, August 16, 2024
“Healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity.”
This one gets a little personal.
About a year ago, I was asked to take a specific genetic test on account of a sibling having tested positive and gone through a challenging year of cancer and its management. Right before this happened, I had actually been considering a newly minted series of tests that can predict up to 50 kinds of cancer – of interest to me, given all my reading on health and longevity. Despite their not being covered by insurance, I thought, why not head these things off at the pass? My assumption was that there would be nothing to head off.
When it actually came time to test for this particular and rare gene mutation (called PALB2), however, and given my 50/50 chance of having it, I started seriously rethinking. Did I really want to know? Wouldn’t it be easier just to sail on through, do health as best I could, and be optimistic that my healthy body would remain this way?
Voicing this question, my doctor responded decisively in favor of the effectiveness in knowing – and how cavalier it might be not to do it. So, following this advice and with a positive result for PALB2 in hand, I am now being monitored much more closely for breast and other cancers.
In addition to being useful and in some ways obvious, these findings play with your mind. They make it easier to imagine all kinds of scenarios, at which point work is then required to regulate negative and counterproductive thinking, the kind we are all familiar with. Worrying. Stressing. Allowing a story about the future to spin out of control. We know these things are not good for our health in the best of times.
So now that I’ve done it and there is no going back, I’m a lot more interested in the kinds of issues that genetic testing can spawn: the psychological and emotional ramifications, for starters, but also issues regarding discrimination, confidentiality, reproductive issues, the prognostic value of such tests given potentially weak or difficult solutions and/or the possibility of overtreating.
For me, personally, as I have agreed to more frequent and complex procedures – which I am fine with – I still have to work to stay balanced. I take deep breaths before every appointment. I go through a checklist in my head about the value of being proactive and reconfirm what I know about epigenetics – which is how behavior and environment can cause changes that affect the way your genes work. Gene expression is not set in stone! I work to appreciate opportunities to stay healthy.
Years ago, when my first husband was diagnosed with later-stage melanoma, a doctor told us this: “With cancer, it’s really all about statistics.” While this may be true from a certain standpoint, it can be a devastating point of view to share with a patient: overly clinical and without consideration of the effects of these words on the individual looking for care and the best course of action and healing. Because the statistics in his case were highly alarming and overshadowed pretty much everything else, fear set in. Were the statistics true? Probably. Had others beaten the odds? Some had. So what is the best way to deliver such news and the best way to receive it?
While a certain kind of person might have clearly seen the value in trusting in the system and in recommended protocols, another might not have had the wherewithal. Another person might feel depressed or even hopeless and might never receive the right counseling or emotional help. In short, they might never feel confident in their decisions, which would certainly impact the success of their treatment.
This is applicable to all of us all the time when we seek or are given news about our health, including test results, lab findings, or diagnoses.
If we are lucky (as I consider myself), we have caring and smart PCPs. Even so, ultimately, we are responsible for ourselves and our attitudes. What can we do to shore ourselves up? Here are a few suggestions, whether you are dealing with potential health challenges or not. Surround yourself with positive support. Find a doctor or team you appreciate and can communicate with well. Educate yourself without going down rabbit holes. Be a loving advocate for yourself because you are worth it. Whatever health you have, be grateful for it.
And above all, never lose sight of the glory, resilience and healing power of the human body. Even the ailing parts deserve our loving attention!
Michelle Curry Wright 