Thanksgiving: Round 5 Chemo

I saw my oncologist yesterday and I have to say it was the best meeting I have had with him yet. My mother, Jeffrey, Erich and I all met with him and left smiling. His criteria for radiation therapy is if any of my lymph nodes show positive for cancer cells. He plans to speak with my oncology surgeon and ask her to biopsy several other nodes besdies the centinal node. But, he feels that the need for radiation therapy is probably nil. He also said to have the full surgery. I won't find out if I need radiation until a week after the surgery. I f I need radiation it won't affect my reconstruction. He has had women go through this before. We also spoke about tamoxifen (anti-hormone pills) follow-up. Taking this drug for 5 years decreases my odds of developing cancer again by 5-10%. He feels that weight gain can be managed well with diet and excercise, and other side effects are really minimal. If I began tamoxifen and found that the side effects were so awful I couldn't live with them, we could re-address the situation. So, when I'm healed from surgery I will start ani-hormone therapy for 5 years.