Growing Old Isn't For Sissies...

Yep, my breast cancer has come back. Sneaky. My oncologist ordered the usual blood tests back in November 2014 and the one for 'tumor marker CA 15-3' was elevated about 100 points. One year I'm cancer free and the next I've got a lesion on my chest wall. Just goes to show that you can't be too optimistic even if the statistics say you can. After my mastectomy, the pathologist wrote that I had a 'nine percent' chance of the cancer returning in the next ten years. It's been seven years. I'm getting ready to go for about 40 treatments (8 weeks) of radiation therapy. Then another CT scan to see if the treatments worked. I'm back on Femara (an aromatase inhibitor, which works by reducing the amount of estrogen produced in the bodies of postmenopausal women, like me) because the lesion is 100% estrogen receptor positive (which, I've been told, is a good thing). Now I'm looking at another 5 years of watch and wait and treat. Kinda feels like my life has been put on hold again. But, having been through this once before, I'm getting prepared for the long haul. I always had it in the back of my mind that this could happen and now it has. Not a big surprise but a big disappointment. In the words of Bette Davis "Growing old isn't for sissies" and having cancer seems more and more to be a part of growing old. There is some hope on the horizon (Ibrance by Pfizer). There are FDA trials going on that could result in a cure. Ladies, stay vigilant.