Next step

I had an appt with my oncologist last Friday. He is a very good doctor as well as my surgeons. I had a good feeling with him and his staff. He explained contents of pathology report from my surgery. His treatment plan is chemotherapy for 16 weeks and hormone therapy for 5 years. To make sure that there is no cancer in bones and liver, chest x-ray and blood test were taken.

I went to see him again today (Monday). Test results came back and they are good, so my body is almost ready for chemotherapy. He explained about side effects of chemo therapy. It is to kill all growing(dividing) cells in my body. I knew I will have to do chemo, so there was no surprise. The next step is starting. I can hide the fact that I lost my breast, but not hair loss and skin change. Although I know this is temporary, losing femininity would be a sensitive topic. My incisions from surgery are healing quickly and I didn't feel sick during the recovery. My real challenge is this step, beating cancer and living with cancer. My oncologist referred me to an obgyn doctor in Stanford, because one of the side effects from chemo is possible permanent infertility. I don't have any plans to have children right now, but I would like to have some in the future. I'll see what kind of options are available for me. I'm lucky there are effective medications to cure the disease and available options for my future.