UPDATE to "Surgery & Radiation Now" versus "Mammograms every 6 Months"

Be_strong

A month ago I was trying to decide whether to proceed with the recommended lumpectomy and radiation treatment or let it ride and see what the status was after six months. Thank you for your responses and suggestions. I did do the surgery. In the end, I thought that if I waited there was a good possibility that the cancer would grow and spread, and it was good to keep ahead of it. (And I looked up some of the big medical words I found in my medical records and the words "invasive" and "aggressive" popped up on my screen.) (I attribute my ability to make the decision to proceed with the surgery to my reading of all of your posts and comments. Your comments encouraged me. Thank you so much!!)

Last week, I saw the oncologist for bone density test results. I actually can get pretty down, and I was going to ditch the oncologist (calling and cancelling). But I ended up going. (I had to have this test to make sure I was in good enough health to take the post radiation medicine? Are these pills so malignant that they have to make sure I am healthy enough to survive the pills? [Rhetorical questions.]) I sat in the parking lot for a long time.

I feel like I have been in a state of shock, disbelief, and numb denial since I got the cancer news in November.

This coming week I start the radiation treatment. I have resigned myself to it. I will try to go with my chin up.

I imagined writing you a nice little letter about what I decided to do and how I came to those decisions. I hope this is helpful to someone. I wish you all the very best with your treatment and strength and courage to your frame of mind. Take care. ☺️💪💪💪🙏🙏🙏💗🌨️🌦️🌤️🌈🌞

Daisy45

Hopefully radiation is going well with you. Those medical words can sound scary but it seems like you are in good hands

bibliophile

This forum is the last place where you have to feel like you need to write "nice little letters". I really appreciate having a safe space where I can share everything because other people get it, or even when they haven't gone through the exact same things, they don't judge me because they understand. Thanks for sharing. Best wishes on the rest of your treatment! 😊

Be_strong

Hello again. I thought I would give a report of my "first" appointment for radiology. So, the doctors decided that I had healed enough from my "lumpectomy" such that I could proceed with the radiation. I had that "first" appointment a week ago this last Wednesday. Anyway, I am usually a nice, you know, pleasant, person, but I was a walking zombie. After meeting with the radiation oncologist in the examination room, I was taken to the radiation room. At some point, I was made to understand that that day was a mock-up of the radiation treatment. We'd do everything except the radiation. What a relief. They put me on this very hard slab with my arms above my head and set me up so that they could build out a mold under my upper body. I guess that was so I would be held in place during the actual radiation. (They actually said I could keep the mold as a souvenir after I was done with the treatments and show everyone. 🤨😐️) The hard slab slid me under a large loop-like structure that I assumed took pictures of me as I moved under it. As we left the room, they pointed out the real radiation room that was next door. We wound our way out of the treatment areas, and as I fled out the door into the waiting room, they said that when I came in for my actual treatment I would just come right through these doors and go directly to the radiation room. I thought, good luck with that. I had no idea how to get back to the radiation room. So, I went and sat in my car. (I sit in my car a lot.) I drove out to a fast food place and got a chocolate shake (which I'm not supposed to have the sugar) and french fries and went to feed the geese. I found the place where I usually park. The geese were all out on the little lake, in the water by the fountain, and on the ice closer to shore. They walked oh so delicately on the ice. After I finished my evil chocolate shake and French fries, I started throwing pieces of bread out my window and let them see and start moving towards me. After a while, I got a text. "Are you okay?" I drove home and basically slept off the sugar the whole afternoon (and blew off work).

My radiation is actually, truly, starting in two days on Wednesday.

Daisy45

https://csn.cancer.org/discussion/comment/1726350#Comment_1726350

It sounds like your appointment went well and those new appointments with preparation for future appointments is very overwhelming at once especially with your first radiation treatment starting on Wednesday.

I was going to be in your shoes in November but I didn't get clear margins from my lumpectomy so they were going to do a reexcision in November and then radiation was going to be in December but due to the findings of new dcis that I didn't get a reexcision and ended up with a bilateral masectomy. They got clear margins with that and then when I saw the radiation doctor a week after I saw my oncologist at the end of January he told me that I didn't need any radiation even though I kinda wish that he would have taken a picture of me so I could know what to compare my chest to in the future .

Many people have gone through radiation even my mom did many times. It's like you are going through a mixed of emotions like Why me, how am I going to feel during it and after it? I do know that they allowed people to go in when my mom got her radiation treatment maybe you can see if someone will be able to go with you there it's less scary when you have some one with you.

Be_strong

Thanks so much for your encouragement. Some time has passed, and time passes fast!!

I hope you are doing well with the Tamoxifen and fatigue.

I wanted to do an "Update" like I have done prior to this. I see this "Network" is ending on May 28th 😪, and I regret that. Here is the "Update" for anyone it might help:

After surgery as outlined above, I managed to get through the radiation. You brace yourself. It has to be done, and you do it. 😵 I didn't have anyone with me because we couldn't leave my elderly mother-in-law home alone. (Not kidding. She is mischievous and thinks it's funny. Dementia.) After each radiation treatment, I would stop by the candy bowl and take a sucker for Mom 🍡 and a chocolate for me. (Sugar, very bad.) After the radiation treatments were completed, the oncologist wanted me to take Tamoxifen (for 5 years). I read up on the two drugs he had offered, Anastrozole for people with "bad bones", and Tamoxifen for people with "good bones". (That's what he wrote down. Sort of condescending. 🤷‍♂️ Oh, well.) Apparently, I have "bad bones". I researched these two drugs and others. I found a couple clinical trials and other information on—well, these two drugs were representative of two categories of drugs that were relevant for me. But Tamoxifen really freaked me out because the more serious side-effects could include blood clots, uterine cancer, and cataracts. Are you kidding me!?!? The anti-cancer drug can cause cancer?! Blood clots? Been there; done that. No, thank you. Cataracts? (My December/January surgery was supposed to have been for cataracts.) I also found a warning of a drug interaction with medicine I was already taking. 😳 (My medicine seemed to be working fine.) Anatrozole, on the other hand, well, I don't have my research folder handy, but I recall osteoporosis as a possible development. (Bad bones.) I wrote the doctor a long email (imagine that!) setting out my findings and my desire to try Anatrozole. He wrote a brief email back that he had sent an order in to the pharmacy.

The Anatrozole pills made me very nauseous and…. It was horrible. I immediately stopped the pills. That was a little over three weeks ago. Stopping the pills didn't seem like a very good idea to me—although I felt good. After phone tag, I emailed the doctor volunteering to come in and see him, and he wrote a brief email back that he had prescribed some sort of anti-nausea medicine. Two nights ago I re-started the Anastrozole, and we will see. No nausea yet.

I'm thinking about researching natural alternatives, researching how to boost my immunity, re-checking how much the Anastrozole allegedly lowers the risk of re-occurrence compared to flushing it down the toilet. 🚽

I'm still trying to figure out what to do. Quality of Life is important. Of course, staying alive is sort of important too. 😁

Best of health to everyone. 🙏❤️