And the waiting continues...

I am not going to lie.  It is a little disconcerting to have a relatively well-known breast cancer doc open a conversation with you by saying, "I am not really sure what to do with you."   But that is where we are on the question of chemo.  I present an unusual case since the cancer "should not" have come back while I was on Tamoxifen.   Dr. Winer agreed that we did everything right the last time.  Even today, if my case from January 2011 presented itself, he would have suggested the same treatment (surgery and Tamoxifen, no chemo or radiation).   He is a doctor that, in patients with ER/PR+ and HER2- cancers, assumes no chemo.  There are NO statistics on cases like mine, so he can't tell me what my risk of recurrence is with and without the chemo.  He can only guess, but his gut is saying we will get enough incremental benefit for it to be the right move.   Craig and I obviously are pretty upset at this new development but we want to do what the doctor's recommend, since my risk of another recurrence is definitely higher than it was after the primary incidence in 2011.

So next steps are as follows:

• Dana Farber will obtain my pathology slides and perform their own analysis.  Dr. Winer does not think there will be any changes but he wants to confirm there is absolutely no breast tissue in the sample and no evidence of DCIS (non-invasive cancer).   If either are present, it would indicate this is a new primary cancer and not a recurrence.
• On Tuesday, October 28, all the doctors at Dana Farber will meet in their weekly "conference" and my case will be presented to see what others think about the chemo question.  (Dr. Winer is away next week and the pathology probably would not be done anyway.)

So we wait for probably 2 weeks for a final decision to be made.  If I were to have chemo, it would start ASAP and would be 8 cycles in total every 2 weeks - so 4 months overall.  I'd have a 2-4 week break and then start 6 weeks of radiation.  We'd be looking at a May end date.   Still hoping we won't have to do chemo, but trying to prepare myself for the worst case scenario.

After all that, I would go on the ovarian suppression shots and take an aromatase inhibitor for the foreseeable future!

I plan to drink a bunch of wine tonight!