I know what my treatment is going to be - could get a bit grumpy, now and then, so you'll have to bear with me. The whole thing is going to take 12 months - this is because my tumour was HER2 positive. I'm going to have Herceptin because of that and have that intravenously every 3 weeks over 12 months. Having chemo as well - not because I particularly need it, but because the government won't subsidise the Herceptin unless you have chemo with it, so unless I can come up with upwards of $50,000, I have to have the chemo.
So, chemo first, along with the Herceptin, probably starting end of next week - don't know yet, 6 doses every 3 weeks, then radiotherapy every weekday for 6 weeks, then I'll have another little op for something else and be on hormone supressing drugs for 5 years. The radiation oncologist told me that in my case, without the radiotherapy, in the next 10 years, there's a 30% risk of recurrence, with the radiotherapy >5%, further reduced by the chemo and Herceptin. So as my sister says, I just have to grit my teeth and get on with it!
Should be finished the chemo by about May - had already booked a little holiday in the middle of May. Going to a Contiki staff reunion in Queensland with a couple of girlfriends, which the oncologist said I could fit in, but not sure how I'm going to look/feel. May be just the ticket, though, and I guess all the other people are going to look different to what they looked like in 1980 too!
I'm just going to do some cleaning while I still can and start getting the decorations out, otherwise it just won't get done. Luckily, it's cooled down here from last week - we had 41C last Saturday - now we're having 24C and cooler nights, which is all important. Will come back later and do some reading of the other threads.
Take care, everybody,
Joan
