The left turn in the road

You don’t always get what you want!


So I thought I was handling things pretty well. I knew I would have to have radiation treatments. We saw Dr.Quan, on Monday 2-27; she recommends 34 treatments, every day for 71/2 weeks. BUT she said, let’s not set up your schedule till after you see the oncologist tomorrow. There is a test she might want to run that takes about10 days to get results. Ok, so off we went, to the Hoban’s for dinner. Really it would be the last time I’d see Aunt Marion, so I wanted to say goodbye. But there were 4 brothers & 1 sister there too. Tim was in town for a quick stop, Tom, Kevin, Jerome & KD all came to say good bye too. We had a very nice dinner.

On Tuesday the 28th we went to the oncologist, Dr.Ruby. Well she wants to run the test, it’s called Oncotype DX. She is not happy with my hormone numbers, so the higher the number the better chance I have at doing a hormone treatment instead of chemo. It took me a week to wrap my head around this. My odds are not good; I will most likely have to do radiation. Mainly because she says “which side of the 1 are you on the right or the left?” If my numbers come back lower than what they were at the last test in December, then I am considered a Triple negative. So then you look at the size of the tumor, .05 to 1cm is “consider therapy”, 1cm and up “Chemo”.

If the number is larger I will still need Chemo, but that number will tell her how much, and what kind of drug cocktail. Right now she says minimum of 4 treatments 1 every 3 weeks. But that could change based on those numbers we will see at my next appoint on 3-7.

I could refuse all treatments, and then the odds are 1 in 5 of recurring within 5years. Those are all my options.

So that’s my update, hope it wasn’t to much detail. I told you at the beginning this was a process to get through, the surgeon was very happy with his work, my seams are healing beautifully. But that was just the first step. Maybe you don’t get all the information at once because you need to go in steps? Yes I have talked to other women who have and are going through this. But I have found out it’s like the birthing horror stories you hear when you’re pregnant, every one has a different one, yours is never like what they tell you. So I’m trying to stay positive, I will get through every thing and come out a survivor.
Thank you for your prayers, Sheila Marie