Can I Ask a Dumb Question?

The story on the heat thing has to do with electromagnetic fields, set up by things like some household appliances, heating pads, electric blankets.  So, the man at the mattress store simply used the word "heat" when in fact the so-called danger would come from a magnetic field.  However, there is no good evidence that magnetic fields cause cancer, just suppositions based on some rat research.  Actually, some forms of heat treatments for breast cancer have been in limited trials, in hopes that, for example, infrared heat treatments combined with regular treatments will improve chances of survival.

On the number of years with no disease equaling cure, this is just a general idea, because each breast cancer acts differently in each person.  That is to say, the first five years, there is more likelihood of recurrence, which after five years, there is 80 percent chance of survival (altho I have read literature that with proper treatment, some breast cancers can be stopped up to 95+ percent).  So, it's the longer you go without recurrence that you can begin to feel you may be likely to survive.  I remember when my husband had colon cancer, one of the more "curable" kinds to get, after two years, everyone could breathe a sigh of relief, and at five years, it was considered a "cure."  But I imagine similar statistics apply, only better for colon cancer than breast cancer.

Me, I have inflammatory breast cancer, rare and aggressive, and invasive ductal carcinoma, the most common breast cancer and slower-growing, so thinking about stories of women who on average get recurrence within two years (these are my averages), then I feel like since I'm doing all proper treatments, chemo, surgery, radiation, I've bought at least two years of cancer-free existence, and so I've decided to give myself a hall pass for two years beyond end of therapy, and will live those as a happy camper, becuz two years beats the heck out of none.