To do Radiation or Not?
I am 48 years old, Stage 2 got diagnosed with ER/PR + HR2-. I grew up in a Alternative medicine household and barely ever went to the doctor so now that I am faced with breast cancer, I am trying to do a mix of conventional and natural stuff since I don’t totally trust conventional medicine. I was born and raised a vegetarian, exercised, yoga etc. So im so perplexed how I got cancer.
Had a Lumpectomy in my right breast and Sentinel node biopsy which showed 1 node positive with micrometastasis. I am agreeing to do Tamoxifen for 10yrs and now they want me to do 20 sessions of Whole Breast Radiation ( including my armpit because of the lymph node) I am so torn by making a decision to do Radiation. They said I have a 30% chance of recurrence. If I do Radiation it would go down to 8-10%. Also, since I had one node positive they said there is a 13% chance that there could be other nodes in there that are positive as well.
First, I am very, very concerned about the MANY awful side effects, especially the cosmetic outcome of what may happen to my right breast. Everyone has things in their life that are extremely important to them. My breasts are those things and they are my best asset. I am very body confident, still single, have a very active and fun social life, vacations, in bikinis and always dress sexy. I would be devastated and my mental health would decline more than it already is, if my breast became deformed or looked/felt not normal, got lymphedema, nerve damage, etc after radiation treatments, even if it they were late side effects years down the line. Even though it may save me.. My quality of life would be horrible and I would rather die than live a bad quality of life. I also I don’t feel right about damaging my tissues or insides. Just the thought of that seems wrong to me, this treatment seems very invasive. Obviously I have cancer and I want to do all I can to save myself, but at the same time, quality of life is very important and you only live once. I have had a rough life as it is and I cant take any more bad things happening to me, it would diminish my mental health more than it already is if I was left with permanent issues from Radiation. The cancer can still come back even if I go thru with it.
I am risky person by nature, so skipping Radiation doesn’t really scare me, because you never know, the cancer might never come back. If it does, I can deal with it at that time. But I am having a hard time making a decision about if I should not go thru with the Radiation and risk it and see what happens. Or do I go thru with Radiation to get a little bit more peace of mind that the stray cells (if any) COULD be gone, but risk getting a deformed breast and other crazy issues put in my life. Please let me know if anyone has had these thoughts and had to make this decision or just your overall thoughts on what I should do. Just need some advice, no one I know has cancer.
Comments
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star888,
I am sorry you find yourself in this difficult position. Let me start by saying that despite the clean lifestyle you’ve led, there was never any promise that you would remain cancer/disease free. Though you have done much to be healthy, all incidences of cancer are not attributable to diet and lifestyle. My sister lived the cleanest lifestyle imaginable, even before that was a thing, and was diagnosed with a uterine sarcoma and dead six months later. She was very bitter and almost felt betrayed by the fact that her lifestyle hadn’t shielded her. So please understand that this can happen to anyone.
Side effects from radiation vary. Most people do very well and don’t experience any ongoing problems. Some do experience problems though it is unusual (not impossible) for any rads side effects to have life altering consequences. Having a horrible quality of life after rads is very unlikely. The thing is that there is simply no way to predict if one will have side effects or not.
For anyone contemplating skipping recommended treatment, the question I ask is if you will feel regret if you then have a recurrence later, particularly a metastatic recurrence. I don’t believe you mentioned your stage but I will assume it’s early stage. Statistics exist on the efficacy of early stage treatments and they are quite good, though bc has no cure so there is no 100% guarantee.
What you are weighing are potential side effects, which may never happen, against historical data from those in similar situations. This doesn’t predict how well you will do, but does show how others in similar circumstances did. In the end it is simply a matter of how much risk you can deal with vs side effects which may or may not happen (and again, highly unlikely to change your quality of life much even if unpleasant to deal with at the time). TBH, I have never heard of rads damaging someone’s QOL so badly that they would rather die but this is your choice. Take care0 -
Thank you so much for your words, much appreciated
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