I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident o through the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13
I met with an oncologist radiologist on Friday who was super nice, very positive about my prognosis and very patient with my questions. He told me some of the pros and cons of radiation therapy. Each type has draw backs. Intra operative is not very selective because they don’t have the results of the tumor testing at the time they do the radiation. Plus my tumor is right next to the skin so there is a chance that in would fry my skin so that it wont heal.
Another type of radiation, Brachytherapy, is done by placing a tube in my breast where they can place radioactive seeds. They do this 2 times daily for 5 days and I have the tube in for 10 days. My hospital has done 10 of these in the last 6 months.
Traditional external beam therapy is for 3 to 5 weeks daily but would also radiate part of my ribs and even lung. It leaves the breast lumpy and 15 to 20% smaller and puts me at risk for rib fracture at the radiation site. (It is good that my cancer is on the R side so it is further from my heart.)
At the end of my visit I asked him what he would do if he were me. He said he would have a mastectomy. Turns out that 1 in 200 people who have radiation develop cancer from the radiation. Kind of high percentage. If I am looking for a long term cure then I should consider mastectomy, especially if I can go straight to implants with one surgery.
My doctor told me that I was talked about in the hospital tumor boards. Weird to be the patient. Still I am so grateful to have options. None of them are great but all of them can realistically save my life. I am reminded daily of people with a more aggressive cancer and I am grateful for my medical team and support crew.
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