Catherine’s Story

Site created on February 5, 2022

On February 7th, Catherine will have a preventive double mastectomy (PDM) at the Presidio Surgery Center in San Francisco. This surgery will take her lifetime risk of breast cancer from ~80% to ~3%.

Catherine’s mom Caroline was first diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 44. She was again diagnosed with a triple negative breast cancer at 55. In 2020, she was diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer that took her life on 3/09/2021.

In 2015, Caroline discovered that she was BRCA1+, a gene mutation that carries an extremely high risk for both breast and ovarian cancer. That same year, Catherine was tested for the mutation and discovered that she is also BRCA1+. The PDM is a procedure recommended by most physicians for people with this mutation.

Over the last 2 years, Catherine and her family have researched options for this surgery. They were thrilled to learn about Dr. Anne Peled, a surgeon in San Francisco who, along with her husband, Dr. Ziv Peled, developed a unique take on the PDM - a nerve-sparing surgery. Preserving sensation was Catherine’s biggest hope, so finding this surgeon was a huge gift and is why Catherine and her family are traveling to San Francisco for this surgery. For those who like to get technical, this is an over the muscle, direct to implant, sensation-sparing double mastectomy.

This is an exciting, scary and extremely important step in Catherine’s journey. Please check back here for updates along the way. Your encouragement and support is deeply appreciated by Catherine, Camden, baby Gryffin and their family.

Newest Update

Journal entry by Catherine Barkley

It has been a very busy week full of blessings and a sad goodbye to the most amazing greatest Grammy and Grampy!

We celebrated Gryffin‘s birthday with a Two the Moon themed weekend! Gryffin absolutely loves pointing out the moon, and Camden’s dream is for him to be an astronaut so the theme created itself. Gryffin adored going to Cheekwood garden in Nashville, getting a new blue car, and chowing down on Oreo cookies from his cake. He didn’t care for the cake itself, but I did, and I was the one who did the hardest work on his first birth day so that seemed appropriate 😆 

On Monday, his actual birthday, I hit the much awaited six week post surgery mark and was finally allowed to pick him up. It was immediately emotional and also exhausting… he has definitely put on weight since I last held him! The importance of me being able to hold him was lost on him, but he was begrudgingly appreciative of me getting back to my assigned jobs of helping him jump down steps, swing him around and pick him up when ever he desires. I am so thankful that he was immediately comfortable getting back into the swing of things (pun intended!) with me. 

But with my recovery and healing, it was only right that our incredibly sacrificial Grammy and Grampy Head home to (hopefully) take a small, but much deserved break before travel again to meet their newest grandchild (and Gryffin‘s newest cousin!) in May. Saying goodbye is always hard, but we are just so incredibly grateful for everything they have done for us over the last six weeks! They cared for Gryffin morning noon and night, missed work opportunities, were apart from each other and away from home for over 6 weeks, cooked and kept our house clean, and so much more. It was truly a labor of love ❤️ 

Finally, I had my six week postop zoom appointment with my surgeon today and she confirmed that everything looks great and healing and recovery are going well! I will have another postop appointment in six more weeks. Full healing takes around six months, but this is a big mile stone and implies that everything else should go fairly smoothly. I am also cleared to finally sleep on my side again. That is just in the nick of time because I sleep better on my side, and I will need all the extra energy I can get to avoid Gryffin’s kicking feet and demands to be swung around. I am so grateful I have the privilege of being able to meet those demands now!! 😊

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