All plumped up with steroids, with my short wig, I have my last chemo.


My oncology doctor and nurse yesterday, gave me the last consultation for my chemotherapy.  I asked many questions about the future and what it all means.  Am I in remission?  How do I tell if it is gone?  Are there any tests?

She replied, "The day you had your mastecomy it was gone. You are a breast cancer survivor.  We just are doing all of this adjuvant therapy to be sure the microscopic cells do not regenerate and come back." 

FYI, Adjuvant therapy is given along with the primary treatment for breast cancer in order to reduce the risk of recurrence and to increase the chance for cure. Auxiliary treatment may include chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormone therapy or biological therapy. 

What are the chances I'll stay cancer-free?  The reports say, "Understand how likely it is that your cancer will return if you decide against further therapy and how much improvement you might experience if you do undergo additional therapy. Your doctor can estimate how well your treatment will work based on comparisons with data accumulated from studies of other people with your same type of cancer, at the same stage and given the same treatment. Remember that this is only a prediction.  Receiving adjuvant therapy doesn't guarantee your cancer won't recur. It can, however, help reduce the risk that your cancer will come back." 

In my case, the prediction of being cancer free in 5 years is 98% if I did the adjuvant therapy and 75% if I didn't.  You can see why I chose to do it all.  Including the radiation, which will start in 4 weeks.

I'll tell you more about that later.  Right now, I am looking forward to getting through this last week of chemotherapy side-effects and then getting  back to my life!