Fearing Chemo

Hi Jane75,

First of all, I am so sorry that you are dealing with cancer.

Sometimes the cancer (especially a high risk cancer) escapes the tumor through the bloodstream and not just through the lymph nodes. You have to think about this at the very microscopic level. A single cell may have escaped and may be circulating in your blood and may set up shop somewhere else in your body later on. For high risk cancers, you really reduce the chance of it coming back through the addition of chemo. I had chemo, and it was nowhere near as bad as I thought it was going to be. I was by myself with my (at the time) 7 year old twins, and also continued working. Also, if you go 10, 15, 20 years out, the chemo continues to reduce the chances of the cancer coming back on a very long term basis, and the 5-year statistics do not include this latent effect.

In my opinion (and this is my opinion only), the best thing you can do for your kids is to do chemo for the next few months so that you can reduce your chances of this cancer coming back, and be there for your kids for many many years to come.

By the way, anti-hormonals are also very powerful drugs, but in high risk cancer, the addition of chemo makes a big difference, especially in the long term.

Best wishes to you.

Jane,

I had five months of chemo, and continued working throughout it. But it wasn't easy. I was lucky I was able to work at home and that I had a network of supportive friends and colleagues. Some women find chemo doable; others suffer from fatigue and other side effects. Some even end up hospitalized from infections and dehydration.

I was surprised that I did fairly well on chemo, but I wasn't Superwoman and I wasn't running marathons or anything. If you decide to go the chemo route, hope for the best and prepare for the worst. Setting up a network of friends/family to help you out with meals, picking up the kids, or house cleaning is highly recommended. Best wishes, whatever you decide.