Laughter, the best medicine

Today I watched an online movie called "Decoding Annie Parker." It was a movie based on the true story of Annie Parker, a young woman whose Grandmother, Mother, and Sister all died of Breast Cancer. The story was also about a persistent geneticist, Dr. Marie Claire King, who worked for years trying to discover the link or  the hereditary gene (BRCA1) that may have caused women in the same family to get Breast Cancer. She and Annie worked diligently to find the connection. It was an interesting movie.

My breast surgeon had talked to me at my last visit about testing me for the BRCA1 gene since there was no history of Breast Cancer in my immediate family. She told me that it was important to know if I carried that gene because if I do, there's an 85% chance that one of my daughters will get Breast Cancer at some point in their lives. Those are pretty high odds and I'm scared to have the test done because of them; but I'd rather know and be able to let my girls know just in case they need that information in the future.

Speaking of the future, I'm a pretty practical person, or at least I like to think I am. I'm always planning ahead, making sure things are set in place. Today, my husband and I went to visit our lawyer. A couple of weeks ago, right after receiving my diagnosis, I made an appointment to have him draw up wills for us. (Now don't go thinking I'm planning on dying any time soon because that is NOT the case. I plan on being around a LONG time! I just want to make sure things are in order now so I won't have to worry about them later.) While the attorney was going over the wills with my husband and I, he was discussing stipulations set forth in the will with regard to right of survivorship. He said, "Mrs. Annis let's just say you die first..." I didn't even let him finish his sentence and I burst out laughing. He looked puzzled and I knew I had to explain my behavior and I wanted to make light of the situation at the same time. I said, "well, that actually might be the case since I just recently got a diagnosis of Breast Cancer." You should have seen his face! He turned a bright shade of red and apologized profusely explaining that he was just using that as an example. I told him I knew that but I had to take advantage of a little bit of humor while I could. Humorous moments haven't been too frequent lately and it sure did feel good to laugh! Laughter truly is the best medicine!

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