Scan post treatment - YES OR NO???
My mum had stage three triple negative breast cancer. She had a mastectomy in December last year, 6 months of aggressive chemotherapy followed by a course of radiotherapy. Besides having a bone scan when first diagnosed she has not had any other scan. Her oncologist stated she does not find a scan post treatment useful. Instead mum will rotate between seeing the oncologist and the surgeon every four months. Basically she waits and see if she develops any symptoms. In theory I can understand why a scan may show false positives and unnecessary tests and stress however I believe Mum feels she has had no closure after her course of treatment and is just waiting for a tumour to pop up somewhere? She has not had any "markers" taken - unsure of the terminology. I was hoping to get some feedback on whether I should encourage her to push for more tests - or hear from others as to whether scans etc created more stress and worry than they were worth.
Ideas on helping mum through this tough time
Hi, I'm new to the group. MY name is Heng and my mum's been diagnosed with cancer. Her first diagnosis was in 2003, its re-occured again in 2012 and at the moment she's still going through possible further radio or chemo treatments. A tumor has re-occured during treatments after surgery and i'm beginning to worry. Surgery has become less of an option since the entire breast has been removed. She says she feels as though there is something pulling or attached inside of the area. After hearing this i've become to be very worry on what i can do as a child in supporting her. Dad left us in 2011 and all mum's family members are overseas. what are your stories and in what ways are benefical in aiding mum's recovery to be less stressful and painful.