Chemo or not

Hi Marney.

Your oncologist will be able to go through all the risk factors and the projected outcomes. There's  a website they can use (adjuvantonlone.com) where they pucnh in your risk factors; age, comorbidity, hormonal receptors, tumour grade, size, nodes etc. Then they can put it various options for treatment you might do in addition to the surgery, for both hormonal and chemo. It calculates the 10year survival rates, based on giant databases of people with previous cancer and their treatment and the outcomes.  

I think lots of people are uncomfortable with maths and statistics, so you might have to ask them to show you the figures. In my case "no additional therapy" gave about 70% 10year survival. The Chemo plus hormonal treatments that my oncologist recommended gave about 90% 10year survival. For me, that made it worth doing. 

Another thing to think about is, what makes you nervous about doing chemo? Often our perception of what it will be like is coloured by what we see in movies and TV. Lazy script writers use "bald and vomiting" as a way of ending a character because the actor has quit or the contract ran out. It's not actually realistic.

While I'm not saying chemo is a walk in the park (I did it 10 years ago and am doing it again now.) The anti nausea drugs are pretty good nowdays. I'm using Pengiun Cold Caps and I still have my hair! There was an article in today's Held Sun (in Melbourne, not sure where you are?) about them. 

The other side effects vary between drugs, and some people get more than others.  Tiredness is pretty common. 

Anyway, good luck with whatever comes next, I hope you are able to find some calm to consider your options and choose the best way forward. 

Sharon