Today was my oncology consult. My Oncotype DX score returned. For those who may have missed the earlier post on this. your tumor is typically sent on for additional genetic testing to better understand the tumor behavior. This is the standard for those under 50 with hormone receptor positive, HER- early stage breast cancer that are lymph node negative to determine if chemotherapy would be of any benefit. Now here comes the math. This measures your likelihood of distance recurrence (return of the cancer in other parts of the body). My score was 20, which for a premenopausal woman elevates my risk. The challenge is that I am at a borderline score where oncologists may be torn between the decision of chemo or no chemo. My doctor’s viewpoint was that adding chemo would only establish a 1.5% difference in outcome, and that given my relative health and age, the impact of chemo on my body would outweigh the benefits. This entire journey feels like such a game of chance. I have to remind myself that so many other factors impact this rate such as diet and lifestyle. I can only hope to control what I can.
We covered the Tamoxifen protocol and any other potential agents they may add that would enhance results. Note that this is NOT a chemo pill as some may call it. It is hormone therapy. Tamoxifen itself can come with a whole host of side effects. I am hoping it’s the like infomercials on television where they just have to disclose all the potential horrific side effects but that most of them are hopefully non existent. From what I was told, most symptoms will present themselves around the two week mark and sometimes they will level out or normalize by thirty days. We’ll reevaluate and adjust at that time if needed.
Today is my beautiful friend’s birthday and I found a video in my memories from today that we made for her during COVID since we were all on lock down and couldn’t celebrate. I watched it again, and it was crazy to see how young all the kids were and hear all the happy messages. All old memories and nostalgia seem to hit hard, and I think it’s really because this whole situation becomes a before and after. A “before” when things were good, and they still are, but in a very different way. There will always be some sort of line in the sand. I am not sure that necessarily goes away, but I pray it blurs over time.
As a general update, I decided to consolidate links to all the products and great finds I recommend on this blog in one consolidated place. You can find my links and shops here now! If you can’t find this post, the link is on my blog home page!
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