Update after Oncologist meeting

We met with the Oncologist today and went over the results of the biopsy.  We had been given the results last week by the surgeon’s assistant and were looking forward to today to gain a deeper understanding.

The results of the post surgery biopsy were in a word – good.  They were what was expected.  Basically most of the cancer had been destroyed by chemo, which means Jill had a very good response to chemo.  They had always expected to find some cancer after chemo.  As Doc explained to us today – there are multiple bullets in our gun of treatment.  Chemo was the first.  It did very well.  Now there will be radiation that should get rid of all the disease in the affected areas (lymp nodes on right side, and her breast area – the skin that is still there).  Once that is done, the next bullet will be the Anti-estrogen therapy that will last ~5 years. 

So, we are on a course that is as good as could be hoped for.  The plan has not deviated one bit from the projected treatment plan we heard in December.  That is really wonderful news and we need to understand it as such.  I mean -  basically if we were told that everything would be great after phase 1 when we first met with the docs, we would have danced.  Well, lets dance. 

What happens now? 

1.  We will meet with our radiation oncologist soon.  Probably this or next week.  Jill will likely started radiation the week of May 23-27.  It is likely that it will go for 6 weeks, but we will know more after we meet with that doc.

2.  Jill will get her port out soon.  That has no real impact on anything, but it is one less thing for her to deal with (she has to get it flushed from time to time0.