? for stage 1, hormone +, her2- sisters on chemo

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BioAdoptMom3
BioAdoptMom3 Member Posts: 198
edited June 2014 in Stage I Breast Cancer

I haven't spent a lot of time on this section of the board because I just found out for sure last week that I am definitely stage 1.  I would appreciate your honest answers because I am trying to prepare myself for whatever may lie ahead, the best I can.  I was assuming (never a good idea I know) that since my stats are what they are (listed below) I would be going right from surgery to rads and probably Tamoxifen.  However I have noticed that several fellow sisters on this BC board are of my stage, and some even with a lower grade tumor, and are taking chemo.  We haven't yet seen the medical oncologist (surgeon's office is setting up an appt.) but the surgeon also stated last week that I will probably at least be offered chemo.  I do realize there are other factors at play here and I may indeed be traveling down that road in the near future. I am very curious as to why chemo was suggested for you if your stats are similar to mine.  I also want to clarify that though I will jump for joy if I do not need it, I am grateful that it is available so that we can do everything possible to prevent this beast from returning months or years later!  So please be honest with me. 

Thanks in advance!

Nancy

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  • mdg
    mdg Member Posts: 3,571
    edited March 2011

    I am Stage 1 and on chemo.  I started 2 weeks ago. You can see my stats below.  My oncotype came back at 17 which is the highest score in the low range.  I had hoped it would be much lower so I could just turn my back on chemo, but it was not.  My doc's said if the score was low, no chemo but if it came back in the mid range it would become a choice.  I got two opinions.  The first one said no chemo based on the oncotype.  The second opinion felt there was potential benefit to me.  The thing that made me choose chemo was that I had angiolymphatic invasion listed as present on my pathology report.  This means the cancer had a pathway to travel by blood even though my lymph nodes were clear.  I was also upgraded from Grade 1 to Grade 2 after my lumpectomy.  Eventhough I ended up doing a BLMX I was still worried about the angiolymphatic invasion.  I have a 4 year old son and I want to do everything I can to blast the cancer now.  I don't want to do this again and I hope by doing it now I will get anything floating out there.  I don't know if it was the right thing or not but I do know that I can live with my decision knowing I did everything I could.  I knew that I would never be OK with skipping chemo if my cancer came back down the road.  I would blame myself.  My compromise was keeping my hair duing chemo.  My doctor is a supporter of the cold caps and I am doing them to keep my hair through chemo.  I will know this next week if it works for me.  It was not as bad as I thought it would be at all...it was very tolerable for me so doing it three more times on my next chemos won't be a big deal.  So I have a total of 4 rounds of chemo over 9 weeks and at the end of that I hope to have my hair and just close the door on cancer.  This is a hard decision.  I agonized over the chemo debate for weeks and it caused me the most stress of the entire BC process.  Once I made the decision it was like a sigh of relief for me.  I was scared to start but once getting started it's OK.  I tolerated the first round OK with a few minor side effects, but all is normal now.  I get my son up for school every morning, run errands, workout daily and cook dinner for my family just like I always did.  It's only 9 weeks...that's what I keep telling myself.  Now I only have 7 weeks left! Good luck with your decision.  I know how hard it is. 

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