To Tamoxifen Or Not To Tamoxifen: That Is The Question

Hip hip hooray for new Tamoxifin research...taking longer saves lives. I sure hope everyone can manage the side effects and that researchers can find a way to continue to continue to keep the numbers going our way...

hawksfan - How are you doing?

I'm so sorry to hear that hawksfansarah - my thoughts and prayers are with you. Are they doing anything else besides Tamox?

Hi Sarah,

I am so sorry to read this... I still feel chemo would help you at this point. What ever happened when you asked your doctors about chemo? Second, I do feel you were poorly diagnosed and treated. If I were you I would certainly be inclined to speak with a lawyer about malpractice, especially with your first set of doctors. I know it doesn't undo what they did (or didn't do), but perhaps it could prevent their negligence from affecting another patient.

Stage 4 is terminal but it can be managed. I would think chemo may be a part of that regime.

Sarah,

Having a surgeon at initial surgery who is worse than worthless is devastating, because it takes so long to realize you are a victim, and all the while you are trying to make good decisions and yet you can't.

This is not just a situation of a lousy surgeon. It includes the facility where no one did whatever was necessary to help you get adequate treatment once they knew about it. Multiple professionally qualified people in your situation HAD to have been aware of it at the time, even though they were not the surgeon. The difference between your situation and mine is that in my situation, the surgeon flubbed up prior to surgery, during diagnosis. Then a young female doctor who was new on staff took the risk, and spoke up in my behalf.  Her protest was buried officially by the facility, but she was in charge of my care and I changed facilities and was handed over to a mature independent practice physician, who saw to it that I was sent to a quality major cancer center for my surgery. Today, 12 years later, I'm not in your shoes.

The question of taking legal action is a difficult one because you have plenty to deal with as it is. Only you can know how much you can handle. Taking legal action, even when you are "right", is very draining.

In my case I was in the throes of treatment with chemotherapy, but because I was aware of several others that the surgeon had also given similar "care", I did pursue legal action against both her and the facility. I did not succeed because it was not possible to prove damage without recurrence of cancer because of the unpredictability of cancer, and one has to prove damage. I could not prove damage because I could not afford the costs involved for having another surgeon testify against her, and the legal system put me in the position of having to file the suit within the time limit of my jurisdiction's statute of limitations in order to preserve my right to sue at such time as I might suffer additional damage. So I filed to preserve that right.

For most early stage patients IMHO chemotherapy is a huge waste of time and resources, but in a case like yours that has been so mismanaged for such a long time, you might benefit from it or it could just add to your misery. It is a gamble, and at best, a quality institution could provide you with an educated guess about its worth for you to consider.

AlaskaAngel