and other things . . .

so of course I took my camera to Tampa.  I can't help myself.  I took shots of the equipment in the rooms while we were waiting on doctors, shots of their lobby Starbucks, of pressure bandages, ID wrist bands, bruises . . .  the 9TS's of course, not complete strangers . . . the valet key case . . .

Credits:  a special thanks to Katie Pertiet and Anna Aspnes over at Designer Digitals.

the hotel where we spent the night, the clerical help, parking garage . . .   But my favorites are the two of us standing outside, after digesting the good news and trying not to be happy, happy, happy until we get home because lets face it, most of the guests at Moffitt are not doing a jig in the parking lot!

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Friday afternoon found us back in a waiting room  . . .  in a cancer center.  But this time it a pre-screening for genetic testing for BRCA1 and BRCA2 for me.  Breast and ovarian cancer run heavily in my family.  I have two first degree relatives who had one, or the other, or both.  Since the test is so expensive, our insurance company, like many, will not cover it unless the patient meets certain perimeters . . . hence the pre-screening.  After a two hour chat with the woman in charge, I now know more than I wanted to about the nasty little mutant gene we are hunting down.  And yes, I qualify and they will draw the blood sample next week. 

I have been aware of the availability of the testing for a long time but it has only been since 2008 that the GINA law was passed that prohibits places of employment from discriminating against those carrying the mutant genes.  Few woman wanted to take the chance of not getting hired or losing current medical insurance, me included, if the tests proved positive.  But now we are free to get the test results with minimum ramification.  If it turns out that I do have the little rascals, my long term medical care plan will change with more frequent doctor assisted breast exams, quarterly mammograms with MRI's and possible preventive drug intervention.  For those of you wondering why I haven't mentioned my ovaries, it's because they were surgically swept under the carpet back in 1996.  

One of the neatest things to come from the results of the testing is that if I do not have the mutant genes, then Katie automatically does not have them.  She cannot inherit something I do not have.  And since she has no first degree relatives that had either cancer, her life time chances are that of the general population.  Did I mention only 4% of all women carry the mutation?  Cool, huh!

OK, enough of the medical stuff.  End of topic.  Today is Saturday and we are celebrating tonight with filet mignon, sauteed mushrooms, grilled asparagus and a couple of plump taters . . . our red meat quota for the month.  Slurp!