Sore Joints

Oh what a lot of BS, unless your cancer is already at stage 4 then I'd say throw everything at it.  If you get a local/regional recurrence a PET will find it (no medicare won't pay and you will have to pay if you want it) and yes you will then only have a 50% chance to beat it and it could still recur and go to stage 4 - but shit it's worth a try to deal with it.  I have a very resistant TNBC and no they couldn't cure mine - but hell the PET found it when it was just at local/regional before it went to mets anywhere else and we gave it a shot, turns out that mine is a really nasty .........  and nothing was probably going to pull it up but it was certainly worth trying.  If you leave having a PET done until medicare will fund then thats at stage 4 and then nothing is going to stop it just maybe slow it down.  I'd be asking for a second opinion and asking for regular PET scans if you can afford them.