Due to start chemo in one week

Hi Chris Is it that you are happy to have chemo, but would like to have Full Axillary clearance as well? I think it can be helpful to find out the risk reduction of full axillary clearance on top of chemo. Also do you know if there were just isolated cancer cells in the Sentinel nodes. How many nodes did they take out each side? I had single mastectomy and Sentinel node biopsy which found isolated cancer cells in 1 out of 3 nodes. So the next week they did a full axillary clearance. I've just finished 24 weeks of chemo, about to start 5 weeks of Radiotherapy. I got through 22 weeks of chemo and then in the final week my arm blew up with lymphadema. This is a costly condition (in terms of time it takes for visits to physio, my time to do all the self massage at home and putting on garments, cost of garments ($150-500 ever six months for possibly rest of life). If there was good evidence of no significant risk reduction by doing FAC, then I would think the risk of lymphadema (which over 10 years is very high) is worth avoiding. But you need to do.what you need to do for your own peace of mind. I have to say, initially when my arm flared up, I was very very worried about having to have compression glove and sleeve on y, all day for rest of life. I'm really really hoping this is just a temporary problem due to chemo, which physio.and doctor say it may just be. To be honest I'm glad I had the FAC, but mine was Grade 3 Stage 2b tumor 4.8cm. I'm not sure if Grade 1 has less chance of being in the other nodes.