I was scheduled to meet my Oncologist at the Walker Family Cancer Centre at 8:30am. Mom and I arrived at the Centre and registered. We were moved to a consultation room. I have been blessed with a talented, experienced, caring Oncologist. It took about two hours but my next phase of treatment was determined. The reports came back detailing my cancer. The type of cancer that I had was triple negative. This means that hormones like estrogen, progesterone and HER2 were not feeding my cancer. The cancer did not get into my lymph nodes. The cancer was bigger then initially thought so it moved me up to a stage 2. The cancer cells are given a grade score from 1-3. This depends on how fast the cells multiply and how abnormal they are. My cancer was a grade 3 that means the cells were pretty wonky and dividing fast.
My Oncologist asked me “if I would consider chemotherapy”? After collaboratively weighing the pros and cons I decided that I wanted to lower my chances of the return of cancer so I would proceed with chemotherapy. My Oncologist has a software program that reviews all of my statistics to determine the level of risk I would be at, for the cancer returning. When I realized that up to a million cancer seeds can be on the end of a pin head, I could not risk one little seed getting loose in my body. I want to live a long happy life. It was recommended that I have eight rounds of chemotherapy. One round of chemotherapy for me is two weeks. Oh boy!
I was given a treatment binder filled with information and I sat down with my Oncology nurse to review all of the information and side effects. Chemotherapy is big! Today was hard! Hair loss is going to happen. I am grateful to have the opportunity to cure my cancer but I am also nervous and anxious about the next phase of this journey.
– Amie Banting