Hi! I’m new to this, it’s good to find you!

Hi Bambino,  you are much further down the line than me but what I would suggest is that you make a list of all the questions you have and all the things you are worried about and have a thorough discussion with your oncologist/doctor/surgeon.  They are the ones who have the knowledge to help you make this decision.  When they give you their opinion they should explain why they are suggesting what they are and if they are not then ask them to.  They should also be able to tell you how beneficial following a particular path is if the benefit is that there is a 1% chance that 6 month chemo first would be helpful then you base your decision on that - I was given this advice by someone on this site, re the %'s.  I hadn't realised how small the likelihood of something can be before that.  Hope this helps and I'm sure someone who has been through this will reply to you.

All the best with whatever you decide.

Hi Bambino

A very warm welcome to the site.

Congratulations on getting through your surgeries and hope you have recovered well. 

So, chemo the big decision. My treatment was over 4 years ago now and chemo was part of that. I had a relatively large tumour, a couple of smaller ones and spread to my lymph nodes so there wasn't really much for me to decide as it gave me much better survival odds to have chemo. However, I still hesitated to sign the consent form (the oncologist sent me away to have a coffee and think about it) and on my first session, I turned up and refused to have it - they talked me round and I went back a few days later to have it. 

Having said all of that - I did very well through chemo and found it the easiest part of my treatment - we are all different. It isn't necessarily as bad as you imagine to go through it, but it's not a walk in the park either. The important thing is that you have the tools and information to make the decision that is right for you.

Surgery is by far the most effective treatment for breast cancer, but chemo and radiotherapy can "mop up" afterwards. Your oncologist should be able to talk you through the numbers and help you weigh up the advantages and disadvantages but ultimately it's your decision and that can be hard. You can take a look at the nhs predict tool and go through it with your oncologist. It uses data from other patients to give a prediction of the % benefits of different treatments to help make a decision. 

For me, I wanted to grab every treatment going - if it had only given me a 1% improvement in outcome I would still have wanted it but that's me. In hindsight, I know that I did what was right for me at the time - I have dabbled in regret over my surgery but we shouldn't put so much pressure on ourselves to make the ultimately perfect decision. The decision you make is the one that is right for you at the time with the knowledge you have. 

i know it's a tough call, but trust yourself and do what's right for you

R

Hi

I was exactly where you are only a few weeks ago and was extremely reluctant to agree to chemo. I would suggest that you have a thorough discussion with your oncologist and ensure that they explain exactly why they are recommending chemo and what they estimate the % benefit to be for you. And tell your oncologist exactly what your concerns/fears are about chemo. My oncologist was very patient, gave me a lot of time and listened to all I had to say. My concerns about the treatment itself were increased by the additional Covid isolation requirements and the knock-on effect of these on my family. I also wanted to weigh up wiping out several months of my remaining life compared to the possible additional months/years that chemo may give me. I did eventually agree but came to a compromise with my oncologist that I would have a slightly reduced and partly accelerated number of cycles - she was very comfortable that this would not have any adverse effect on the projected benefit. This gave me only 3 months from my 1st to final treatment and for me this was very important. We don't all feel the same but please do ask your oncologist every single question that you want answered.

I am due to have my 2nd treatment n 3 days and so far I have had only minimal side effects which were more than manageable and have carried on as normal for much of this first cycle. I know that this could all change with future cycles but I have appreciated this good start. Not everyone suffers badly through chemo so don't be too worried about some of the experiences that you will read about.

Good luck with your decision.