My regret was after seeing the signs of my breast cancer doctor in the beginning I should have immediately changed docs. So important your treatment doctors 🥼 are caring and concerned and listen to you.

Barbaric treatment. @A MyBCTeam Member that is what it is. One thing though, I wouldn't doubt treatment in 50 years will be much different since 50 yrs ago until now everything is pretty much the same. Maybe a few different chemo drugs but the drugs still have the same effects. Drugs with different names but they all have the same side effects. I don't believe 50 years from now will be much different and there won't certainly be a cure.

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A MyBCTea...

Yes, I wish I didn’t have the one and only chemo session that almost killed me. It wasn’t necessary for the type of cancer I have and I am still dealing with consequences that might never go away. Wish medicine was a bit more personalized. Instead, they give you the full cocktail so that “they” don’t feel like it could tarnish their reputation/career if something were to go wrong. They don’t care about the suffering “you” are and will be going through. Funny how their careers don’t get derailed when the chemo kills or almost kills patients (and there are plenty of cases like that). 50 years from now, people will be laughing at this barbaric treatment (I do understand that in some cases there’s little to no choice. But at least patients should be informed when there are choices).

Barb67, thanks for replying regarding chemo. I read your story and how crazy this journey can be! I would probably do the same thing as you with this diagnosis. Quality of life is more important to me than extending life by, sometimes, just a few months but in misery. When you read studies, you see how brands compete by stating they’ve extended life by 3.7 months. But at what price to the patient? This is where you see this business has gotten out of hand.

At the very beginning of this when I had my first meeting with my surgeon the first thing I said was NO CHEMO. So that was noted. I told her I would consider radiation but that wasn't definitive. So she said if I refuse chemo then she would recommend a mastectomy. I told her I couldn't do that either because recovery time is longer and I had to get back to work. I am very surprised how they all have been so great and supportive in spite of my unwillingness to cooperate