My visitor has just gone. What a lovely lady she was too. I really feel for her, she had her mastectomy about 5 weeks ago and is feeling pressurised into having chemo. She has a family history of bc, and has been frightened by her sisters experiences with chemo. Her tumour was grade 3, no lymph involvement and they have recommended she has chemo. She says she doesn't know what to do. Like she said, she has spent her whole life "clean living". She didn't give into the pressures of drugs etc when she was at Uni, she eats healthily, does regular exercise etc so having her body pumped full of chemicals really goes against what she believes in.
She's done a lot of research into it, what drugs are used around the world etc so is very well informed about it all.She said she found chatting to me useful, but she still doesn't know what decision she will make. She's due to see the Onc again tomorrow to discuss it further. Fingers crossed she will make the right decision for her, whatever it may be.
The funny thing I've realised from talking to her is that I never even questioned having chemo. Trust me, I hardly ever took even a paracetamol before so having all these chemicals and drugs is very alien to me too. However, I never questioned why they recommended I had it. I just wanted to throw as much at my bc as possible. She said they told her it would increase her chances of not having a recurrence by 10%. She said she thought that was a low figure. I said I had to confess that even if they'd told me it would increase my chances by 1% I would still have gone for it.
Another thing I have realised is, I am very lucky to work for a sympathetic employer with a good sick pay policy. She doesn't get any sick pay.
I just hope I've helped her. She did say I had, even though she still hasn't been able to come to a decision.
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