Cancer Treatment Update Aug. 15 - Aug. 31
In my last post, I talked about life up until August 14, and now, just a few weeks after putting together that piece, my perspective on the future has taken a huge turn. I had my twelfth round of Herceptin today, and only have two more rounds left. In the last two weeks, I’ve started to look forward to life after cancer treatment. Although I’m still very guarded and don’t want to commit to saying that I won’t have to go through this again, I am finally able to think about plans that go beyond treatment, plans that don’t include cancer.
Today, while meeting with the PA, I talked through a lot of my concerns surrounding Tamoxifen. I asked a ton of questions about side effects and the pros of taking this drug. I didn’t get much in the way of answers, which is the norm at this point. I know the main side effect is hot flashes and that the pathology on my cancer was strongly positive for estrogen and progesterone which means I am a perfect candidate for Tamoxifen. I don’t know what the percent chance of recurrence is with or without Tamoxifen. I told my PA that it’s hard for me to buy in to taking Tamoxifen when I don’t even know how much it is going to help me in terms of lowering my risk of recurrence. I need to be sold on it and they aren’t selling it at all, as far as I’m concerned.
One of the biggest things that I have learned throughout this whole journey is that doctors don’t always have the answers. A lot of them are just following some protocol that was designed by a team of other doctors, based on research. They don’t actually know why they are giving you the treatment they are giving you beyond what the protocol says and they don’t necessarily know that much about what the data says in terms of the treatment plans. The one time I got data from my Oncologist it was through a nurse in an email that said the chance of recurrence for my cancer after all of the treatment including Tamoxifen was less than 10%. Then, they attached a link to a journal article describing treatment for my type of cancer. It was in that article that I read about how I was getting three times the dose of Herceptin now versus during weekly doses (something nobody on my team told me).
Another thing that I cannot stress enough to anyone going through this process is educate and advocate. You need to educate yourself about what kind of cancer you have and what the treatment plans look like. You need to advocate for yourself because if you don’t you will be at a disadvantage in terms of getting your needs met. Take someone with you to appointments if you are not comfortable asking questions or think you may forget things. Ask to audio record appointments or phone calls if you are worried you won’t remember things.
Although I don’t have a ton of confidence in my medical oncology team in terms of getting answers to questions, I do agree 100% with their treatment plan for me. Although there are times when I want to get a new Oncologist, at this point I have so little left in terms of treatment I don’t know if it’s worth the hassle of finding a new one. I’m thankful for my nurse because she is extremely intelligent and I have faith in her and her ability to do her job. If it wasn’t for her, I don’t know how I would have gotten through the administering of my chemotherapy.
It’s going to be strange in a month when my calendar opens up and all I have are the sporadic doctor’s appointments. It’s going to be amazing to be able to live a normal life, like my peers who haven’t been diagnosed with cancer. Most of all, though, it’s going to be amazing to not be getting any medical treatments anymore and to be able to recover physically from the last year. Two more left.
