Hi ! My mother had breast cancer, so I knew I was at risk... every time I went for my mammogram I would wait in trepidation. Well! in 2011 I had the terrible news come to me .. I got through the painful surgery and chemo relatively quickly, in large part because I had a very supportive family during the crisis. Problem what I was not really ready for the painful long-term endocrine treatment that followed!
I put on 35 pounds, I felt old and slow.. the hot flashes were horrific.. my oncologists even tried to switch me from Tamoxifen to one of the other agents (Femara I think), and that was even worse. Plus I was told that these drugs can cause endometrial cancer, osteoporosis/fractures, uterine sarcoma. Yuck!
7 months ago after one of those horrific nights of hot flash, I started to do some reasearch and found out a company in San Diego had a new gene based test (Breast Cancer Index) that told me if I was even benefitting from the treatment and how high was my risk. The results came back and I was thrilled to find out I was in the category of women who were
- at low risk of recurrence (2.1% is what my score was)
- would gain no benefit from more treatment (doctor said trials had found no difference for untreated and treated patients!)
This was the freedom I was waiting for! The doctor told me that given my situation, he recommended I stop treatment. It is absolutely the best thing that happened to me. I started to workout again.. I have mostly lost all the extra weight, my relationships have improved and I feel like myself again!!
Thankful for the freedom, which is all the more precious after the suffering I have been through.
Lori
Ann Arbor, MI