waiting for reoccurance

Thanks Shelly, I guess i just assumed because it was triple neg and I missed out on treatment that it might be more often. I am good with this.

I just noticed the thread was for stage 3. My apologies....getting old.

i went to oncologist for six month check up today, asked what my risk was and quite shocked by the reply - 50 to 60%  chance local recurrence or getting cancer in remaining breast........but for cancer elsewhere risk is same as rest of population he says...........i am concerned as ca15.3 goes up at every blood test.... Still within normal but higher than it was three weeks pre surgery two years ago! 

I was not told that I was at high risk for reoccurance. Instead, because I'm doing neoadjuvant, my onc tells me that my reoccurance risk all hinges on how well I've responded to my chemo cocktail. Bad response, high risk, great response, low risk, average response, it's a crapshoot. It makes me so nervous for finishing chemo and surgery because I feel like whether I will live or die all hinges on what is found during surgery.

I think the main things that make me high risk according to my onc is family history (2nd degree relatives), and grades 1-3 in my tumor.  She also claims this was only growing for 6-12 months, but am not sure I believe that.  They seem to say that about Stage 2 people too -- at least in one case I've heard.  

thats 20 to 30% chance of recurrence Momine, i dont know if I am kdding myself but women who have never had breast cancer have a 20% chance if getting it dont they? 

Lily, I am really not sure. What the onc says is also what cancermath.org says for my case. Where my risk is a lot different than the average woman's is that if mine comes back, it will be stage 4, and I am not sure the risk is that high in the general population anyway. That may be the risk of getting a DX, but we are not talking DX here, we are talking death basically.

Your numbers and mine would be different because we have had different treatment. However, if the crap comes back the end result is the same either way, and stats mean little on an individual level. I always keep in mind that my mom's chance of 5-yr survival was 30%, when she was DXed with ovarian cancer ... 7 years ago. She is fine, great in fact. I was there the other day, and she was on her way to ballet class, on her bike. The woman is 74.

Lily, I hear you and same here.

Kicks, that is not a "hijacking." I am glad some of the former stage 1-3 ladies still hang with us.

The written word is open for SO many intererations.  Especially over the internet.  We can NOT see the person, their tone or body language.  Can only go on the first words written - "not the thread I'm supposed to be on'.  I will agree that there was positive posted BUT that was did not start the post.  To ME - The positive should have been first on this thread - then once written something along the lines "I've been there, you can too". 

Totally get it, AryaS.

By the time I'd finished all my treatments last September, I was so tired, and people couldn't understand why I was not, like, "WHOOP! WHOOP!! I JUST KICKED CANCER'S SORRY !@#$!!" It took time to get my energy and enthusiasm back up.

And then this February, I had a scare, a lump on my scar line. And for a month I was scared and depressed until I got the results. My doc phoned to let me know, and I was like "OK, thanks for letting me know" And she said, "So its GOOD news, right?!", as if she thought I hadn't understood, but it was merely that, when you've been so down and anxious, its difficult to just stop, and be back to normal!

It took a couple of days to come to terms with a benign diagnosis, and then I got news that my mum had a stroke. She passed away April 23, and I am just getting back on track again now.

I feel happy and healthy, just now, and see a PS for reconstruction decisions this week. At present I am not stressing about recurrence .... not to mean I don't fear it though ....