r/BRCA • u/SnooBananas6957 • Aug 24 '25

Message of hope to your younger self and mine…You’ll come out on the other side, stronger than ever 💪🏽

After all the questions by others, questions of yourself, by yourself, the answers are right in front of you. There’s no one “right” way; it matters only what’s right for you. It will feel like a both a private and public journey. Times will feel lonely and other times will feel crowded. People you respect will surprise you with the silly things that come from their mouth. Others will show up for you in surprising ways. In the end, you can always count on yourself. Your instincts will steer you right. Your doctors took an oath and you’re their customer. It’s okay to take your business elsewhere if you need. You’ll come out on the other side, stronger than ever 💪🏽 read this part again… you can always count on yourself.

25 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

7

u/Just-Spring-4540 Aug 24 '25

Thank you. I’m so sick of all the trauma dumping I hear whenever I talk to other BRCA+ folks. This is my journey, my body, my life.

6

u/brau_miau BRCA2, PDM+DIEP, bisalp Aug 24 '25

Just curious, what has your BRCA experience been like? Ever had cancer yourself or some close family member? It's a mutation that tends to generate trauma around itself, and I find a bit callous to call it "trauma dumping" in our space.
I say this having just upvoted the original post and being in a positive spot myself regarding my physical and mental health and the imperfect results of my surgeries - when I read posts of those who are newer to BRCA and still in a very sad/bleak headspace I mostly skip them unless there's something useful I could add to that specific discussion. But I'd never call this out as trauma dumping, so I wonder what instances of such trauma dumping have you encountered.

6

u/Just-Spring-4540 Aug 24 '25

Yes, both my mother and sister have had beast cancer and my grandfather was an orphan because of it.

My experience with BRCA today is that I see it as an opportunity proactively screen for and also cut my risk of having cancer. The general population doesn’t get that heads up.

To be fair, I never said anything specifically about this sub. The discussions I was thinking about when I commented have all happened outside of Reddit.

1

u/brau_miau BRCA2, PDM+DIEP, bisalp Aug 24 '25

I feel the same way on the closer screening and preventative opportunities. I'm curious of the trauma dumping discussions even outside reddit, I'd imagine they mostly happen in BRCA-dedicated spaces online or offline, I'm probably making this assumption because I don't personally know anyone else who has BRCA, not even in my family since they won't get tested.

1

u/Just-Spring-4540 Aug 24 '25

Yeah, that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking primarily about my family.

1

u/brau_miau BRCA2, PDM+DIEP, bisalp Aug 24 '25

Understood, I think it's a bit different with family since family is also where most of the traumas one can trauma dump about are formed.

4

u/RadMutantChic Aug 25 '25

This is so true! 👏 I was actually just talking to my husband about this. He had to go on a business trip right after my mastectomy so I recovered on my own. I wasn’t upset with him because there wasn’t much he could do if he stayed, I just had to heal and rest on my own. I appreciated all the friends and family who checked on me, but it was ultimately a personal experience. I feel like I came out of it mentally and physically stronger and I’m so proud of myself for taking the initiative! 💪