I am a little grumpy but resigned.
Yesterday I went to the medical oncologist.
As expected, she suggested I take hormone treatment, an aromatase inhibitor. Aromatase is an enzyme which enables estrogen to be produced in the body. Thus no estrogen. A daily pill, not nasty chemo, but , according to her, 60% of women who take it have unpleasant or worse side effects, mainly arthritic pains, hot flushes and an increased risk of osteoporosis and possibly brain function impairment.
I had been under the impression that the odds of me getting a secondary cancer somewhere in my body were about 5% without further treatment. However, according to the medonc, of 100 women who have exactly the same type and grade of tumor and no lymph involvement, 10 to 15 of them will get secondaries, not 5. With treatment , 6 to 10 can be expected to die within 10 years of secondaries. I had decided that for an extra 2 % ( according to my previous information ) I would not take the hormone treatment.
I talked to her about some of the products that my naturopath would treat me with. She agreed that there was a lot of evidence to support the usefulness of these products but that the evidence had not yet got into mainstream western medicine. She agreed several of them would be of complimentary use.
So, while not 100% sure, I will probably try the hormone pills. I will see if I can lead a normal life for me which includes knitting with my hands, lots of walking and learning Spanish with my brain.
Tomorrow I have a baseline bone density scan, the following day a blood test and will make a final decision next week.
As expected, she suggested I take hormone treatment, an aromatase inhibitor. Aromatase is an enzyme which enables estrogen to be produced in the body. Thus no estrogen. A daily pill, not nasty chemo, but , according to her, 60% of women who take it have unpleasant or worse side effects, mainly arthritic pains, hot flushes and an increased risk of osteoporosis and possibly brain function impairment.
I had been under the impression that the odds of me getting a secondary cancer somewhere in my body were about 5% without further treatment. However, according to the medonc, of 100 women who have exactly the same type and grade of tumor and no lymph involvement, 10 to 15 of them will get secondaries, not 5. With treatment , 6 to 10 can be expected to die within 10 years of secondaries. I had decided that for an extra 2 % ( according to my previous information ) I would not take the hormone treatment.
I talked to her about some of the products that my naturopath would treat me with. She agreed that there was a lot of evidence to support the usefulness of these products but that the evidence had not yet got into mainstream western medicine. She agreed several of them would be of complimentary use.
So, while not 100% sure, I will probably try the hormone pills. I will see if I can lead a normal life for me which includes knitting with my hands, lots of walking and learning Spanish with my brain.
Tomorrow I have a baseline bone density scan, the following day a blood test and will make a final decision next week.
Comments
Post a Comment