The rollercoaster continued ...
Good news - detected early
Bad news - need a mastectomy
Good news - lymph nodes were negative (no cancer cells found)
Bad news - pathology determines it was slightly invasive (small clumps between 1-4mm had 'leaked out' into the breast tissue where blood supply is located)
Good news - the small clumps are very small and unlikely to have spread
Bad news - pathology determines the cells were ER negative, PR negative and HER-2 positive {I didn't quite know how to take that ...}
Yeah, once they had sliced and diced what they'd removed from me it took a while for more results to come through. The last diagnosis meant that the cancer cells were quite aggressive (bad news) - they'd lost both their Estrogen and Progesterone receptors, and were overexpressing Human Epidermal growth factor Receptor 2 (HER-2). Receptors are 'sticky outy' things that project from the surfaces cells, acting as identifiers or receptors for certain chemicals in the body.
Luckily, humans have designed an antibody that seeks and binds to the HER-2 receptor, and disables the cell. Unluckily, if you have this you are advised to undergo chemotherapy along with the immunotherapy that targets the HER-2. Luckily, Medicare in this country helps you receive this with minimal cost (thank God). So I had to make the decision whether to accept my 80-ish% survival rate without chemo, or increase my survival to over 90% by agreeing to undergo treatment with 6 rounds of two chemotherapy drugs and one year of the drug Herceptin.
Well, what would YOU choose?
