00:00Today I feel really wound up. I could barely sleep last night. It was kind of
00:07similar to like when you wake up on Christmas morning and you're like, is it
00:10time yet? Is it time? Is it time? So tomorrow is my preventative double mastectomy.
00:27I feel like I'm ready. Are you ready? Nope. Yeah, I know. I'm as ready as I think I could
00:35possibly be though.
00:36As ready as calm it is to go to the dog park. If we rewind a lot, I have always
00:42had a history of
00:43cancer in my family. So when my dad was diagnosed with cancer, I was, it wasn't
00:50that much of a surprise. The surprising part is that it was really aggressive and
00:56they caught it when it was already stage four metastatic prostate cancer.
01:04So my dad is my best friend. He'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
01:20go through treatment. I love you. Oh, I'm messing up your hat. That's okay.
01:29So when I called him and told him that I'm BRCA positive, he was devastated.
01:42So I think the first time I heard about BRCA was when Angelina Jolie had her preventative
01:49double mastectomy. Angelina Jolie told the world in the New York Times piece that she carries
01:54a genetic mutation. In 2013, she had both brushed removed and underwent reconstructive surgery.
02:02There are plastic surgery studies that show that when Angelina Jolie announced that she
02:06had a genetic mutation and was having mastectomies, the number of mastectomies and women undergoing
02:11genetic testing really jumped. I'm also seeing a lot more women in their 20s and 30s who they've
02:16seen family members get cancer, seen people potentially even die of breast cancer, and they
02:21do not want to ever be in that place.
02:29My lifetime risk of getting breast cancer is 87 percent. My lifetime risk of getting ovarian
02:36cancer is a little over 30 percent. So I have six different meds. I truly have never once in this
02:47process questioned whether a mastectomy is the right thing for me. I spent weeks going through
02:54it and interviewing surgeon offices and being told many times, we can't meet with you because
03:01you don't have breast cancer, or you're too young, you don't need to be thinking about this. And being
03:08told just no. So it took a lot of just advocating for myself to be heard.
03:13So I'll make two lists. You do not need a sleeping pad. My bag and your bag. I want my
03:22robe, my drain
03:25belt. Wedge pillow. I don't know what it's going to be like after my mastectomy and reconstruction. I
03:34have no idea how long it'll take for me to heal. I mean, I have some vague idea, but I
03:40don't know what
03:40I'm going to look like really. And I do absolutely feel nervous about that. I'd be lying if I said
03:47I didn't.
03:52Can you tell me your full name and date of birth?
03:54Serafina Nance 32593.
03:57All right. 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.
04:06Alloderm. Okay.
04:06Taylor will take great care of her. She's going to do awesome.
04:09No doubts.
04:10I had my first surgery in August, which was a breast reduction in order to prime the pocket
04:16of the breast. Most women don't have any sensation in their breasts after a mastectomy. So that's
04:22another reason why I went with my surgeon is she's pioneering this incredible kind of opportunity
04:28for women to regain sensation. It's happening. We're doing it. We're doing it.
04:34All right. So you can follow me.
04:36Bye.
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
04:54a nerve graft to connect to under the nipple. We then did immediate one-stage breast reconstruction.
05:08Hello.
05:10It's a party.
05:11I love it.
05:11We've got a big party.
05:12Is that okay?
05:13Yes.
05:14Have fun.
05:15All right.
05:16Here we go.
05:17Hi.
05:19I feel so proud of myself.
05:21Yeah.
05:21It was like, how do you feel?
05:22I was like, so proud.
05:25It's done.
05:27We did it.
05:29We did it.
05:30No.
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,
05:45which was 8%.
05:46You can see, like, the right there is where the drain was.
05:50That'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.
06:09Like, this is what it's going to be like.
06:12And I'm excited to, like, kind of get to know it.
06:17Closed 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.
06:39That 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.
06:59I'm like, bye.
07:01I'm馆s.
07:02I'm sorry.
07:03I'm just like, bye.
07:03I love you, 3,000, and we can get to know it, bye.
07:03Bye.
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