After such a long wait on nov 9th i got to know the extend of my cancer. We went to this appointment and I was told Id definitely need chemotherapy and radiotherapy as they cant be sure that one of the cells did not break off and escape somewhere. So they said due to the aggressiveness of my cancer it should be treated aggressively too.
It was grade 3, hormone positive, 2 lumps the biggest one being 23mm, HER2-negative with 1 out of 7 lymph nodes infiltrated with breast cancer
My consultant asked me if i wanted to know my survival statistic so I said yes without thinking. Now I'm one of those people who need to know everything good and bad. I spent days and days since my diagnosis looking thru papers on breast cancer on Pubmed,
Internet, forums,etc. I wanted to know it all. I wanted to know what was happening to me so when i was offered statistical prognosis of my survival I didn't even think and said yes.
My consultant said she d refer me for chemo discussion to oncology.
... and here is my biopsy results as well:
It was HER2 -negative
Now what statistics show is that I have a 9% chance of dying in the next 5 years if i do have a chemo and around 15% if I don't have chemo. For me this was no brainer and I decided to go ahead with chemo. I thought every little % must count!
Im no histologist but remember some of it from my medical training. The rest of the stuff I had to look up on the net. I was slightly worried that my cancer was so close to the chest wall and yes I thought if it managed to get into one lymph node whats to say that one of the cells could not have broken off and travelled elsewhere?
So I was due to meet my Oncologist who will guide me thru this horrendous treatment.
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