I've had cancer 6 times now over the past 9 years. Breast cancer twice and endometrial cancer 4 times. I've had radiation 5 times and chemo twice. The only reason I'm still alive is radiation. When my endometrial cancer came back the 1st time I was given an AI for a few months and the tumor kept growing so I insisted on the next step which was chemo. After 7 rounds of chemo the cancer was still alive, its growth just slowed down a bit. Radiation is what finally killed that cancer. It also killed the endometrial cancer the 2nd and 3rd times it came back. I know for me that radiation kills my cancer. I was mad when my breast cancer returned and they made me do chemo before the radiation, but the cancer was aggressive and having chemo first upped my overall survival odds. Whenever I have cancer I go with the aggressive treatment route because I want to survive as long as possible.

As far as side effects and recovery goes I prefer radiation over chemo. Radiation tends to make me nauseous during and after treatment, but I take nausea pills 2 or 3 times a day and I eat small meals, more like snack size, 4 or 5 times a day and bland foods which helps.

Usually after 2 -3 weeks I get tired and need to take naps. When radiation is done I still am tired for 2-3 months afterwards. You need to listen to your body and rest when you are tired. I usually start getting my energy back 2-3 months after radiation is finished which depends on how long I need radiation treatments.

Regarding my skin, it gets red and burns, but applying lotion helps with that. I've had my skin blister a couple of times, but usually within a few months my skin has healed.

If you have a lumpectomy instead of a mastectomy it's important to have radiation to kill any cancer cells that may still be in your breast, but are too small to be found on the various types of scans. If you had gone with a mastectomy odds are better that all the cancer would have been removed and most women are able to avoid radiation.

If you have hormone positive cancer it's important to take hormone therapy like an AI or Tamoxifen because your cancer feeds and grows from the estrogen/progesterone that your body produces. The hormone therapy stops production of those hormones and starves any cancer cells that remain after surgery and any new cancer cells that might start growing.

Cancer and cancer treatments are scary and so are the side effects. Your doctors want you to have radiation and hormone therapy because that will give you the best chance of not having your cancer return and gives you the best odds for a cancer free future and for your overall longterm survival.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do ❤️

This is so informative, and its just so hard when having to made decisions about what course of treatment will give the most benefit, and it's scare me and I've decided to give myself time, till my next appointment with the Radiation Oncology, which is after the July 4th holiday to made a decision. Thank you for sharing, appreciate it.

Stage 1 triple negative breast cancer 2018. Did chemo, surgery and 20 radiation treatments. I did just fine with radiation. I had increased fatigue, and skin was a bit reddened by the end, but intact.
Wishing you well!

Thanks Laura