To chemo, or not to chemo, that is the question

Good luck for tomorrow.... I'm sure you'll come through fine with all your questions answered... just remember it's your decision and you have to be confident you made the right one.

 The following blog was started the middle of April this year and went on for months... it's titled 'What has helped you through your journey?' It was started by Shazinoz... well worth reading .. maybe needs to be re-started with so many 'new' pink ladies starting treatment now and early in 2013...

http://www.bcna.org.au/user/9176/blog/28978

good luck and take care

Trina

Thanks Trina. Happy to hear you have come out the other side of chemo. I have to say, my prognosis obsession at the moment is all about me ;-). I just want to make the right treatment choices to ensure I have done all I can to beat this. Forever. I've even given up drinking to increase my odds of not ending up with a recurrence. That at least is one factot I have control over. Getting back to weight I should be will be much harder, but that's in my sights too. It's great you can trust your oncologist. I would too if I had lucked on a good one. I certainly trust my surgeon and hope to be speaking with her tomorrow. Thanks for the advice and I hope you keep going from strength to strength, x

Thanks Trina. Happy to hear you have come out the other side of chemo. I have to say, my prognosis obsession at the moment is all about me ;-). I just want to make the right treatment choices to ensure I have done all I can to beat this. Forever. I've even given up drinking to increase my odds of not ending up with a recurrence. That at least is one factot I have control over. Getting back to weight I should be will be much harder, but that's in my sights too. It's great you can trust your oncologist. I would too if I had lucked on a good one. I certainly trust my surgeon and hope to be speaking with her tomorrow. Thanks for the advice and I hope you keep going from strength to strength, x

Hi..Looking back Chemo was difficult but not to bad for me... I had 3 x FEC every 21 days followed by 9  Taxol once weekly over 9 weeks. (4 months all up) I finished at the end of August. I then had 29 'fractions' of radiation starting towards the end of September finishing 6 Nov. I had my ovaries out (because of the hormones) and am now on Arimidex...and in Menopause (more yuk!!)

Everyone is different... and I won't kid you that it's easy...(for me the worst was and still is the fatigue) but if you follow doctors orders with regards to meds (and ask about additional supplements), drink lots of water (flush the shxxxx out quickly) and don't over do it. You get through it. Theres a blog somewhere on BCNA about what helped you through chemo..search for it as it has heaps of ideas... I can msg you about more about what helped me and what I'd do differently... it also depends on what Chemo the oncologist suggests. For me (and my other friends) FEC was the worst.. Taxol was a lot easier....

Not sure about increased risk of leukemia, I didn't ask many questions about side effects I just trusted the Onchologist.. if you cannot speak to an Onchologist tomorrow.. ring your GP... you would be surprised what they know and maybe they can book you in to someone for a second opinion. 

Take care, keep in touch.....and don't worry about your prognosis compared to everyone else... we all have (or had) Breast Cancer, size, grade etc.. doesn't matter... whatever.. you have/had the Beast  and that's what important.

Trina

Thanks for sharing your story with me. The decision to have a mastectomy was instant. Did not struggle with it in the lead up, or since surgery.. A girlfriend told me of a t shirt doing the rounds in the States: "Yes, they'r fake..my real ones tried to kill me". I can really relate to that! Off with them. Be gone. Don't care. Just get this cancer out of me. Ditto Tamoxifen. Not an iota of debate with myself over taking it. Thrilled to learn I was ER postive so I could take it. MEnopause is just around the corner for me naturally anyway, so just a slightly earlier onset of horrible symptoms to deal with. Unfortunately no one will tell me I should do chemo. I had taken it as a given when first diagnosed I would be having it. Then my surgeon shared the news with me that no one in the treatment was prepared to say I should have it. The danger for me is that I have recovered really well from surgery, and just want to get on with living, and don't want that to cloud my judgement. How to answer the question if I will get more benefit chemo when they tell me it will be of little benefit, or am I better of continuing to lose weight to get down to the weight I should be, get back into the exercise I love, and enjoy an alcohol free life (gave up totally on diagnosis, with no intention of doing anything to make the chance of recurrence higher if I can help it), get my naturopath to tweak my supplements and just get on with living. They also told me that new evidence emerging that staying on tamoxifen for longer than five years adds a few more percentage points to beating recurrence. The noise in my head is deafening. And champagne no longer an option to quieten the noise. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Thanks for sharing your story with me. The decision to have a mastectomy was instant. Did not struggle with it in the lead up, or since surgery.. A girlfriend told me of a t shirt doing the rounds in the States: "Yes, they'r fake..my real ones tried to kill me". I can really relate to that! Off with them. Be gone. Don't care. Just get this cancer out of me. Ditto Tamoxifen. Not an iota of debate with myself over taking it. Thrilled to learn I was ER postive so I could take it. MEnopause is just around the corner for me naturally anyway, so just a slightly earlier onset of horrible symptoms to deal with. Unfortunately no one will tell me I should do chemo. I had taken it as a given when first diagnosed I would be having it. Then my surgeon shared the news with me that no one in the treatment was prepared to say I should have it. The danger for me is that I have recovered really well from surgery, and just want to get on with living, and don't want that to cloud my judgement. How to answer the question if I will get more benefit chemo when they tell me it will be of little benefit, or am I better of continuing to lose weight to get down to the weight I should be, get back into the exercise I love, and enjoy an alcohol free life (gave up totally on diagnosis, with no intention of doing anything to make the chance of recurrence higher if I can help it), get my naturopath to tweak my supplements and just get on with living. They also told me that new evidence emerging that staying on tamoxifen for longer than five years adds a few more percentage points to beating recurrence. The noise in my head is deafening. And champagne no longer an option to quieten the noise. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I hear your dilemma.Sometimes you are in a grey area and the oncologists don't always have a definite answer.They sprout statistics and leave it up to you.From my experience(twice on the bc ride) when more than one doctor is saying you MUST have chemo then you probably need it and should have it. I had a lumpectomy,full node clearance(all clear) and radiation back in 2003. My pathology was almost identical to yours and bc size was 2cm. I didn't have chemo and I didn't follow through with Tamoxifen.I was 47yrs old and it soooo didn't agree with me -I tried for 3 months.Well 7 years later bc came back in the exact same spot-grew to 3cms in a year-same pathology.I had to have a mastectomy and then strongly advised to have chemo.I was reluctant but went ahead.I think I must have had an elephant's dose of Taxotere because I ended up in isolation ward with no white cells and on an iv drip for 4 days.Now some women breeze through chemo and some of us don't. When my oncologist visited me in hospital ,I told him I wanted to stop chemo.Surprisingly,he was ok with that so long as I took Tamoxifen which he said,would be more beneficial to me anyway!.If I had a crystal ball,I would go back to 2003 and have a mastectomy and take Tamoxifen no matter what.I could then have choice in  reconstruction and would have missed chemo.I have a girlfriend with similar bc pathology as me and also diagnosed in 2003-same surgeon and onc.She had a mastectomy,full node clearance and then took Tamoxifen for 5 years.She is now 10yrs on and fine,healthy as! This is just my personal story and ultimately,you will have to go with what feels best for you.Sometimes it feels like you are dammed if you do and dammed if you don't. Good luck with what is the hardest decision on this awful ride.

                                   Tonya xx

I hear your dilemma.Sometimes you are in a grey area and the oncologists don't always have a definite answer.They sprout statistics and leave it up to you.From my experience(twice on the bc ride) when more than one doctor is saying you MUST have chemo then you probably need it and should have it. I had a lumpectomy,full node clearance(all clear) and radiation back in 2003. My pathology was almost identical to yours and bc size was 2cm. I didn't have chemo and I didn't follow through with Tamoxifen.I was 47yrs old and it soooo didn't agree with me -I tried for 3 months.Well 7 years later bc came back in the exact same spot-grew to 3cms in a year-same pathology.I had to have a mastectomy and then strongly advised to have chemo.I was reluctant but went ahead.I think I must have had an elephant's dose of Taxotere because I ended up in isolation ward with no white cells and on an iv drip for 4 days.Now some women breeze through chemo and some of us don't. When my oncologist visited me in hospital ,I told him I wanted to stop chemo.Surprisingly,he was ok with that so long as I took Tamoxifen which he said,would be more beneficial to me anyway!.If I had a crystal ball,I would go back to 2003 and have a mastectomy and take Tamoxifen no matter what.I could then have choice in  reconstruction and would have missed chemo.I have a girlfriend with similar bc pathology as me and also diagnosed in 2003-same surgeon and onc.She had a mastectomy,full node clearance and then took Tamoxifen for 5 years.She is now 10yrs on and fine,healthy as! This is just my personal story and ultimately,you will have to go with what feels best for you.Sometimes it feels like you are dammed if you do and dammed if you don't. Good luck with what is the hardest decision on this awful ride.

                                   Tonya xx