Hello

I was hoping someone who had been through a very similar experience would reply to you.  Mine is advanced breast cancer and I'm currently undergoing chemo.

What I can say is there are quite a few stories of people who have had secondaries perhaps even many years later, even though they had surgery to remove a well-defined lump.  Your medical team must believe that chemotherapy is the best treatment to follow surgery as a way of minimising the risk of cancer coming back.  It's a hard slog going through chemo and I doubt anyone likes such pergatory but at least once you are through it you should have a trouble-free time ahead.

There are people who refuse chemotherapy and also those who react so badly to chemo that they cannot continue with it.  If you are suffering badly then it might be worth talking again to the team before taking any more far-reaching decisions as your dosage may be in need of adjustment. 

Best wishes

Gill

Hello Hun and welcome to the site!!

Just want to say hi and that I hope you find the strength you need to do what you need to do!! I hope you find others here who have had chemo that can advise or encourage you and as the last post to you said - that you speak to your doctors about it.

All I can say to you is is that it must be really difficult and your bound to get times when you want to give up that you can't go on but somehow people find the strength they need to keep putting one foot infront of the other in this battle against cancer!! I hope one day at a time you will continue to beat it and hope this forum helps to support you!!

Don't forget you can call nurses here too or post questions in ask the nurses!!

Afaith

Thanks for your reply. I am going to speak with my oncologost before I make my final decision

I think you have made the right decision to talk to your oncologist before you decide.  Sometimes with some treatments they lower the dose a bit to mae it more tolerable.

Have to say I have been really lucky.  I have had four chemos and for the first three I felt rough the first week, a bit better the second week (althouth in each week I had no appetite and everything tasted really awful) and ok the third week.  After round 4 I was pretty rough for the first week but have been a lot better this week than in the previous sessions although I was warned the cumulative effect usually makes you feel worse for 5 and 6.

Speak to the oncologist and if you can do try to continue with the treatment as I am sure the team would not have suggested this if the thought it unnecessary.

Do let us know how you get on.

Best Wishes

Gill

I am cancer free right now but I would not be if I had listened to myself. I wanted to stop the chemo treatments but stayed a course that was planned out by my doctors and can say today I'm cancer free. If you can try to stay the course is your best bet. Maybe there's something they can add to help you out. Half way through they put me on neulasta and it made a big difference with the treatments. Have you asked if there is something they have to help out with the treatments? I hope it all works out for you..... 

Hi

I did finish all my chemo and actually the last one was the easiest of them all. 

I then had to take Tamoxifen for 2.5 years. I made the decision to stop this in January and since coming off this I feel like I am alive again. My Oncologist did swap Tamoxifen for Letrozole which I took for about 6 weeks however this gave me awful joint pain so I have now stopped this too.

Good Luck with making your decision

x

Hello rbs, and a warm welcome to Cancer Chat. It's great to see that mrspavelka has returned to reply to your question - it's often really helpful to hear from other people who have gone through a similar situation! 

I think it's very much a case of every individual being different when it comes to treatment duration, and would recommend talking to your specialist first before making a decision. They will work with you to plan and manage treatment, so please don't hesitate to contact them if you have any concerns. 

We also have a team of nurses available on our freephone helpline (0808 800 4040), should you wish to talk to someone about all this. 

Wishing you all the best - please feel free to continue to posting and let us know how you get on,

Helen

Cancer Chat Moderator

hi. I have had 2 0f 9 chimo treatments. I was told that i dont have cancer and the chances of it coming back is 15%.

I have also been told that after 2 months of not working I wont get any payments till june and then about 50% of the money i need to stay out of dept.

I'm thinking of stopping the Chimo and going back to work full time.

I'm also thinking of using herbalism as a alternate treatment.

any one got any comments

Maybe picked you up incorrectly, but why are you having chemo if you don't have cancer? Do you mean they removed what they could see?

Chemo is usually used as a treatment if they suspect there could be even 1 or 2 stray cells floating around somewhere. It's why people are given systematic treatments such as chemo.

I'll assume they did remove it, and now they're saying there's no evidence of cancer in your body, so with that in mind, you have to ask yourself how would you feel if you cut treatment short because of work and your cancer returned? Would you be able to live with your decision? Not saying the cancer will ever return, but a big fat IF it were to return.

As for herbalism, that isn't an alternative treatment. An alternative treatment is swapping1 treatment that has a proven track record for another treatment that has a proven track record. Careful where you read all this stuff. Almost all these people pushing "alternative" treatments have a product to sell. So of course they're going to say great things about it because they also lack scruples. Your health isn't important to them, only your money.

Think about it, the NHS lose money treating you, whilst the alternative people gain money treating you. I know who i would trust. Those with nothing to gain from my plight.

All that said, you need to have this conversation with your oncologist, not a bunch of random strangers on the net. It's your life, and you owe it to yourself to make an educated choice, and a choice you can live with for the rest of your life.

I know, financially, it's tough. We've been there over the last 18 months too. But you need your health to work and if you haven't got that, then work will become irrelevant. If you haven't already apply for PiP etc. Call MacMillan or Maggies. They are great at giving out financial advice and steering you in the correct direction.