A Difficult Decision

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The cancer journey entails A LOT of crucial, lifesaving decisions: lumpectomy or mastectomy, chemotherapy or alternative medication, conventional therapy or clinical trials, and the list goes on and on. It becomes even more difficult when well-meaning friends and loved ones offer conflicting opinions. "Don't do this, it will kill you." or "Drink this, it will save your life." I often times wish for God to reach down and literally point His finger towards the best path.

A friend of my sister recently underwent mastectomy and got diagnosed with stage 3 ER-PR positive Her2-negative breast cancer, which is the most common type of breast cancer that is not aggressive and highly responsive to medications. Her oncologist recommended the standard chemotherapy treatment, and she will need to take hormone pills for the rest of her life. When she asked her doctor if this will guarantee that her cancer will not recur, her doctor said that there's no assurance. So now, she doesn't want to continue with the treatment anymore.

I wish I could convince her to go ahead with the chemo, because even if there's no guarantee, it's still the best option out there. Go with chemo because there are medications to counter all the nasty side effects--nausea, body pain, vomiting, etc. Go with chemo because thousands of women older and weaker than her have done it and survived. But at the end of the day, it's a personal decision. It's her body, and she has to be 100% comfortable with whatever decision she makes.