Hi everyone
I am 45 years old and by a series of strange coincidences diagnosed with breast cancer in July. I never felt any lump. Anyway, I had a lumpectomy of my ER+, HER 2 neg tumour on 6 Aug. It was grade 3 and 25mm. My lymph nodes were negative and the tumour was fully excised! Yay!! (Hence Kill Bill Vol. 1 concluded.) :-)
Saw the oncologist today and wasn't expecting much discussion about chemo yet since my surgeon had mentioned that risk of recurrence would be assessed with Oncotype DX for which results would take a few weeks to come back.
However, the oncologist informed me that OTDX is not very useful in patients under 50 and that he used the Predict tool to base treatment decisions on. According to that there is benefit in me going for chemo.
However the decision is still mine to make and I am afraid the data for and against chemo to me does not seem clear cut. At 15 years, chemo adds 8% to the survival rate than hormonal treatment alone based, on my specific tumour details. I also realise that the tool is not an accurate predictor of the real outcomes.
Does anyone have any similar experience in having to make this decision? I am not sure if going through the agony of chemo is going to be worth it. :-(
Thanks a lot for taking the time to read this!
KB x
and breathe
I found it helped to take each day as it came, don't be stressing yourself about your hair, i didn't need to shave mine until my second treatment. It started falling out 13 days after my first treatment but only looked thinner, so maybe just have a short cut for now then go for the shave later, unless you think you could just go for it all at once.
You keep waffling if it helps, i use to talk some right rubbish to my breast care nurse, i often wondered if they had a warning on my file saying "The one who goes on and on" lol
Once your treatment starts you will feel better, good luck with the PICC line tomorrow, like i said before it is the best thing and i wish i'd been offered it.
When i first started my treatment someone shared this
brilliant way of describing it but made me giggle too.
Keep posting and we'll keep listening xxx
