Seeking suggestions and support
So happy to find this forum. I’m 73, still work full-time, and, prior to the pandemic, I was traveling all over the US for work...living and enjoying life. Last Feb., I had a stereotactic biopsy and a lumpectomy for atypical lobular hyperplasia. Mammo showed no change in that breast this year. A screening mammo in Feb. of this year revealed a small lump in my left. I had an ultrasound-guided biopsy and it came back carcinoma. I wasted no time connecting with a surgeon and had a tag implanted and a lumpectomy. It was removed and the edges are all clear. I am estrogen/progesterone + and HER2-. My surgeon is recommending Rad and says that, if the RO agrees I need it, it can be as little as five weeks, once per week for 15 minutes. I have been reading in here and haven’t seen anything like that short course of care. My MO wants me on a hormone blocker. I am deeply concerned about my quality of life being impacted and I don’t know which to choose. I have not seen my MO since my lumpectomy last week and have an appointment for a zoom call with the RO on the 8th of April. I know everyone’s cancer dance is different, but I surely would appreciate some feedback. My tumor was less than .4cm with dcis at .7cm. All edges were benign.
Comments
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I had the long course of 33 sessions. I don't know about the plan you're talking about, but I wanted to say hello and be a placeholder until someone knowledgeable has something to say.
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thanks, Alice
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My radiation treatment was four weeks, five days a week. My MO also recommended tamoxifen (turns out my bones are shit) so I tried it. But I'm a serious runner and tamoxifen really messed up my heart rate so I stopped.
Good luck--this is a friendly informative bunch so ask your questions!
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I didn't have rads (I had a MX) and I was only familiar with rads being given daily, but I found this, which appears to be what your RO is recommending:
For Early-Stage Breast Cancer, Weekly Radiation Is as Safe as Daily
https://www.cancerhealth.com/article/earlystage-breast-cancer-weekly-radiation-safe-daily
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MsPowwowDancer - Welcome to the Breastcancer.org Community, although we are sorry that you have to be here for this reason. We hope that you continue to share your story, experiences and questions with our members, we would love to hear more from you!
Best wishes,
From the Mods
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I can't help you with the radiation question (that wasn't an option when I was doing radiation), but give the hormone blockers a try. I took Arimidex for 5 years without any problems. A good thing about them is if one doesn't work for you, you can try another or quit altogether. For me, of all my treatments (including chemo), hormone blockers gave the biggest risk of recurrence reduction, so I was grateful that taking them was a choice for me.
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