Hoping for the best, expecting the worst

Hi That Fox and big, big hugs to you!! I hope my story helps you.

I had an employment contract that stipulated that the company could dismiss me as a key employee should I be diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. That caused me so much anxiety, even though I felt in my heart that my employer would support me. (Which they did, BTW!)
I was diagnosed on 12/4 and because of the holidays and the surgical consults, extra tests, etc. my surgery wasn't scheduled until 2/18. I told my boss about my illness as soon as I knew the surgery date and what the surgery would entail. Recovery from a mastectomy takes longer than lumpectomy. I think it is important that you share the information with your employer when you have your treatment planning well underway. My job was conducive to telecommuting, and my employer was completely open to me working from home whenever I was able/needed to. I had a lumpectomy on President's Day and was able to work from home the next day. The only thing that kept me working from home the next 2 weeks was that I was not able to dress appropriately while I was healing and my doctor asked me not to drive. Based on my pathology, after surgery there were more tests to determine if chemo would be a benefit for me. Again, I only told my boss when I had information. I had 6 cycles of chemo. I missed the day of the chemo infusion (Tuesday)worked on Wednesday, leaving at lunchtime for the Neulasta shot, then worked from home on Thursday and Friday because those were the worst days of each cycle. After chemo, I had radiation every morning for 6 weeks. Was able to get an early morning appointment and missed no work during radiation.
Now all that said, everyone is different everyone has different levels of support and they react to treatment differently. Here are the things that are important for managing treatment and working.
1. Your oncologist needs to know you want to work and he/she and her staff support you by making sure that you manage the side effects. And that they help you schedule appointments around your work schedule. If you need chemo, plan your chemo so that you are able to use the weekends to recover. In a 3 week chemo cycle, you will generally feel the worst on day 3-5. Surprisingly, I felt pretty normal after that time was over.
2. Your treatment centers need to be close by. Having to commute long distances to and from treatment will increase the number of days or hours you will need to call off work.
3. You need to have support at home and not be responsible for caring for others...children, parents, etc. When I was in active treatment,my retired husband took care of everything....errands, laundry, bill paying, food preparation, up to and including turning down the bed for me so I could lay down as soon as I got home from work. The ideal situation is that you are being cared for and not caring for others. And I think this holds true, even if you take a leave of absence, really.
4. Be flexible and put your health first. I had to call off two extra days during chemo because I was not feeling well.
5. Let your employer know that working is important to you.

There are many women on these boards who work during treatment and there are some women who take a leave of absence. It is what works for you.

Love and Hugs, MsP

ThatFox,

So sorry you find yourself here. While its hard to remain calm, you are getting ahead of yourself. Its easy to do, most of us are planners and understand how badly you just want to fit this all into your schedule, but unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. If you learn any one lesson from this mess it is that nothing is predictable and you need to go with the flow.

Taller than wide is not a good description and neither is a birad 5. You likely have cancer, but there is always a chance you don't. Its one of those situations where you have pray for the best but expect the worst.

If you do have cancer, chemo may be necessary, but if you are ER+ with no node involvement and HER2- you may not. Depending on node involvement and the type of surgery you select, you may or may not need rads. At this point there are two many scenarios to even begin to predict what your treatment plan may be. A lumpectomy with radiation and an anti-hormonal pill would require minimal time off work while a mastectomy with reconstruction and chemo would need more.

You will likely have choices to make regarding surgery. Lumpectomy always need radiation, but sometimes by getting a mastectomy you can skip radiation. That's what appealed to me. Of course no reconstruction is a much faster recovery time. Reconstruction, whether with implants or flap surgery (using your own fat to create new breast mounds), often requires more than one surgery.

Chemo is really up in the air. Some people do really well and work right through chemo, or others, like me, can't get off the couch for 2 out of the 3 weeks in a cycle. Many get by with working from home or reducing hours.

It sounds like you have a great job. Whatever amount of time off you need off from work, within a few months you'll be back to feeling like yourself and doing your job as efficiently and ever. You really need to impress that upon your employer. This is a temporary state, it will pass. There is no need to go through the expense and trouble of replacing you. However, perhaps if it helps you, you may be able to find someone to train to help out temporarily if needed.

Good luck to you.