A day for good news

Dave and I met with the oncologist today and heard what I consider good news. She says I’ve come through this ordeal in good shape and doesn’t think I need to worry too much about a recurrence. The road ahead should deliver a smooth ride.


Those are my interpretations of her words, not direct quotes. My lab tests look good. There was a spike in December in one of the tests, CEA, which is a cancer marker. A normal reading is under 3.0. In July it was 3.0 (post surgery); in October it was 4.4 (during chemotherapy, an expected rise); in December it was 9.3 (post chemo, beginning of radiation, and not necessarily unusual—as long as it goes down again). It did—it was 3.5 in the blood work done last week and she’s pleased.

I’ll see her again in about 8 weeks. She prescribed Aromasin as my hormone therapy drug; I’ll start that 2 weeks after I complete radiation (next Tuesday is my last day).

I see the surgeon in early March and he’ll set a date for my mammogram.

Looking back, this was not a case of DCIS (ductal carcinoma in situ). This was an invasive cancer that got out of the breast and into the lymph system, granted only into one node, but one was enough. My oncologist doesn’t think there is a need to worry that it traveled anywhere else. There is no need to be concerned that there may be a cancer putting down roots anywhere else as a result of the breast cancer. Chemotherapy should have killed anything growing anywhere else and the radiation should be murdering anything that happened to outwit the surgeries and the chemo.

Bottom line, it’s all looking good. That’s the hope and that’s the sense that I’ll take with me as I move ahead.

That said, there are no guarantees and I’m smart enough to realize that. This can come back at any time. It might be there right now. I can’t think that way, I have to be positive.

Five more days of radiation and I’ll close another chapter in the sally. I can’t wait!