I've always been aware of the recurrence possibility with mets as I watched it take down my sister a couple of years after her 5 year all clear (and hers was an extremely early bc treated with a full mastectomy). My GP gave my surgeon a heads up in the initial referral that I was unlikely to be swayed by optimism. I guess that it's easy to listen to the 70% effectiveness message of the AIs without thinking about the 30% and what that means. And it's always been a bit confusing to me, the focus on the remaining breast at the 12 month scans, when the likelihood is that a recurrence will be elsewhere. These days, I seem to have so many aches, pains and "things", that I'm not sure I would recognise something wrong. But I'm trying to be a pragmatist rather than a pessimist. I've always told my medical team that I want them to keep me alive long enough for the next breakthrough in treatment. Apart from quality of life issues, I'm happy if it's a managed condition for 30 or 40 years (maybe I am optimistic as that would make me 95). Of course, the optimum, and what I'm hoping for, is that my surgeon and onc are right and that it's gone for good. But as someone else said, none of us are getting out of here alive. I just want as much time as I can.
