I don’t know where I ever came across these lines, but I immediately thought: I will print them out and hang them up as a reminder. In the boys’ senior year of college I think…
That reminder doesn’t work at all. There is no control over the thoughts that have been running through my mind incessantly since the diagnosis. Although I’m not the type to look very far ahead, the uncertainty about my future has a major impact.
The setback after the operation, the larger and more aggressive tumor, feels like a penny that fell the wrong way. With my friend it was the other way around, so that is also possible.
Metastases
The good news, however, was that the sentinel node was clean and there was therefore no reason to think of metastases.
Metastases are my worst nightmare. Healing after metastases becomes virtually impossible; if you’re lucky you can stop the disease. The sentinel node or gatekeeper node is the first place where metastases go and it is standard procedure that it is examined. Just before the operation, the gland was detected by a laboratory technician using contrast fluid and radiographic technique, so that my surgeon could remove it. Not only the sentinel lymph node turned out to be clean, but also the cut edges of the removed tumor. With the radiation with extra boost on top, all cancer cells should be gone. The hormone therapy must ensure that any stray cancer cells cannot grow.
My chance of survival in percentages
The oncologist showed in a graph that with this treatment (surgery + radiotherapy + hormone therapy) I have a 74% chance of still being alive in ten years. The basis of the treatment consists of breast-conserving surgery, which is always done in combination with radiotherapy. This together represents a survival rate of 66%. Each additional treatment is an additional percentage. For hormone therapy, an additional 8% = 74%. The two treatments that I did not choose, because of the side effects and my intestinal problems (see my first blog), are chemotherapy +7% and bisphosphonates +2%.
Hopefully those cancer cells also know about that 74%.
PS: without breast cancer my survival rate in ten years would have been 96%; There is no such thing as a 100% chance, because for example you can die unexpectedly in an accident.