The report says..... "Katrina was diagnosed with stage 3a left breast carcinoma PT3PM2M0 in June 2007 and has undergone a left mastectomy and axillary clearance 2/7/2007 (63mm, grade 2, 4 of 8 lymph nodes positive, vascular invasion positive, ER >70%2+, PR 30-70%3+, HER2-......"
(Yes, you read it right..... it was 63mm ...... I still haven't come across anyone else with anything near a 6.3cm tumour!)
That wasn't the confronting bit though..... further into the report she wrote "Her risk of relapse or new primary at time of diagnosis was estimated at approximately 80% over 10 years but this has been reduced by an estimated 59% with post operative therapies." By my calculation that still means I have a 47% chance of it coming back in the next 10 years. While I like that number much better than 80%, it's still a scary number...
Hmmm... one of my buddies from the breast cancer forum tells me she thinks I miscalculated. She thinks it means 80% minus 59% = 21%. I do hope she's right - that sounds much much better! I think she may be right. I think I was just over complicating the calculations.... typical accountant! LOL
ReplyDeleteHey Kat
ReplyDeleteMy friend's ma was told much the same calculations as you, and her treatments reduced the original percentage of 82% recurrence to just 22%. That was 11 years ago. She's still alive and kickin' at 79 years of age. So I agree with JudyB that your percentage is 21%. That's great!!
Once you start thinking about the numbers it gets pretty confusing and then scary, huh? However, 21% is great! It's so inspiring that you're off to the Solomon Islands and doing the things you want to do xo
ReplyDeleteYes.... 21% is great!
ReplyDeleteI'm off to Melbourne next week for my 3 day 'pre-departure briefing'.... am so excited! Just over 10 weeks to go to Solomon Islands!