Annoyed, you’re not the only one! My recommendation was for surgery, radiation and an AI. Ultimately, it has worked out well for me. I don’t feel like it has limited my life in any way. My advice to you is to be honest with your oncologist. Ask him/her to explain why they’re recommending your treatment plan. Ask for a breakdown of your risk of recurrence with surgery only vs surgery plus rads and tamoxifen. The pathology report on your tumor and any lymph nodes removed will show how aggressive your cancer is. Your family history is also a factor. The doctors give us their best opinions based on training and experience, but the final decision is ours. Good luck withwhatever you decide!

Annoyed - I think you were asking if anyone has refused radiation or tamoxifen.

My oncotype score was 29 showing an 18% chance of distant recurrence if I did hormone therapy. I never really considered opting out of radiation. The second opinion reading of my lumpectomy slides showed lymphovascular invasion so even though my lymph nodes were clean I felt that radiation was important. I did pretty well w/ the treatment - fatigue and slight nausea, but no burning.

With the 29 oncotype score, my medical team wanted me to do chemo, but I did opt out of that as I didn't think the benefit outweighed the potential damage to my system.

Since I opted out of chemo, I feel that it is important to do the tamoxifen. I think it helps me maybe another 18%?? I'm still getting up to having the full 10 mg daily dose in my system, but the dr wants me to take 20 mg daily. I will work up to 15 mg then decide if I will go higher.

In the meantime, I am working to lose weight, eat better, keep a positive mental attitude, walk at least 30 min at a time frequently and do some strength exercises.

It’s hard to comment without knowing the specifics of your cancer. Was it DCIS or invasive? What grade? You can make a risk benefit analysis and decide. I have an intellectually demanding job that requires occasional travel and I even worked during chemo, you shouldn’t automatically assume that hormone therapy or radiation are incompatible with your dream job.

Definitely ask them to explain risk vs benefit for your specific cancer. For some of us (myself included), the hormone therapy makes such a statistical difference it ends up making it all rather necessary. I mean it's a risk either way, isn't life like that? For me, I was told tamoxifen is to keep stage 4 away, not just to keep a local recurrence away. I am not happy with my tamoxifen experience, but I watch a family member with stage 4 and it's not something I want to experience.

That said, I do have side effects but they don't keep me from successfully working full-time. You should be fine as a school principal.