Due to start chemo in one week

Hi Lucia I've got a very similar story to yours minus the children. Diagnosed late November, R) Mastectomy early December with one of 2 sentinel nodes having isolated Cancer cells. No cancer in any of the other nodes of the full axillary clearance. I'm wondering on what basis you think the chemo can't guarantee the cancer won't come back? Did one of your doctor's say this. I'm a Speech Pathologist and I have too wondered how necessary the chemotherapy is and if I could just skip it. I guess I really trust my surgeon and my oncologist who both specialise in breast cancer and I haven't gone searching for information about the necessity/effectiveness of chemotherapy. I guess I've also been fortunate to speak to women who managed their chemotherapy very well. One turned out to be the admin officer of our department. she has just passed her five year mark. She worked full time through chemo and radiotherapy, having it on her rostered days off. She did work at the hospital where her radiotherapy was. I know she had only recently separated from her husband and I suspect she was living alone. The other had very hardcore treatment for ovarian cancer and had a much rougher time and was only able to work 2 -4 hours on her good days, but her cancer was very very advanced so I suspect it was much harsher chemo than ours will be. She has just started back at work now and gave me a treasury of dealing with the side effects. I've been told I won't be able to work full time, but I'll be able to work part-time. I'm fortunate that work is a five minute drive and they are very flexible in terms of switching me to office work when I'm unable to see patients. It is gonna suck, I have no doubt at all. But I'm prepping myself to deal with all the side effects. I've had heavy (3 months in bed) depression and anxiety in the past. That's given me the opportunity to learn to use mindfullness to cope with anxiety/uncertainty. But throughout this journey, I have been grateful that I don't have any children to look after. And I suspect my mindfullness skills would be well stretched if I did. Were you working at all prior to diagnosis? Are you financially stable? Do you have childcare available, either formal or through friends and family? Are you having public/private treatment? Do you have access to a social worker? I start chemo tomorrow at 12:30, but very happy to continue to chat this afternoon and tomorrow morning.