My Trip to the Oncologist's Office

I had my first appointment with my medical oncologist, Dr. Nancy Peacock, today. She was great. Granted, I was highly annoyed because I had to wait nearly 45 minutes past my appointment time to see her, but once she entered my room, you would never have known that she had other patients to see -- ever. I almost had to rush HER out of the room at the end of our 45-minute meeting. Seriously, this woman was NOT in a hurry with me, which was so nice, since I had a ton of questions for her. The upshot of the meeting? No chemotherapy for me!! Whew!! We will proceed with radiation treatments, beginning in December, after which I'll start a five-year course of a drug called Tamoxifen. Tamoxifen, which studies have shown can cut recurrence risk in half, somehow binds to estrogen before it can move around in the body and cause things like breast cancer.

Dr. Peacock and I talked quite a bit about recurrence risk and the things that do and do not contribute to that risk. Unfortunately, studies have shown a connection between alcohol consumption and breast cancer, so I'll be cutting back a bit on my wine drinking (the studies show that seven or fewer drinks or glasses of wine per week is fine; more than that can increase your risk). I don't think that I drink much more than seven glasses of wine per week, but it depends on the week, I suppose. Personally, I find this whole alcohol/breast cancer thing highly annoying and incredibly unfair. If any group of folks deserve to drink wine to their hearts' content, it's all the ladies out there who have had and beat breast cancer, but we have to deal with reality and if the docs are telling me to limit my alcohol consumption then you can bet I'm going to do it!

So, on this Tuesday before Thanksgiving, I'm feeling beyond blessed to have received such good news from the oncologist. You can imagine that Thanksgiving will be particularly special for me and for our family this year. I hope that it is for each of you, as well.

Have a wonderful, safe and blessed Thanksgiving with your families.

Erin