Cancer Survivor in Montana?

Do I have to be a cancer survivor in Montana?
Can we just pretend that it was someone named Shay in North Dakota that had it?
Probably not. Dang!

I figured I should be a good girl and at least show my face at the Cancer Center here in Helena.

Lots of people recommended Dr. Justin Thomas. He is an oncologist at St. Peter's Cancer Treatment Center. So I set up an appointment for this morning.

He was way nice. He read over my chart beforehand and then we chatted about how I've been doing. I've actually been doing great! It feels like it actually never happened but I guess I understand the importance of getting checked.

Then came the topic of Tamoxifen. Let's just say- It's not been my favorite topic. ;) Here's a few explanations- See Posts- Discussion with Panwalker and Herceptin # 8. By the time we were done- Brett was laughing at us. He said he could see that both of us felt strongly about the issue. And he also could see neither of us were about to budge on where we stood.

My biggest thing is that I did everything "right" to get rid of my cancer. I am now cancer-free and doing very well. I am NOT a drug-fan. It comes down to that -for me- there's not enough evidence that Tamoxifen will keep it away. And the possible (even if they claim they are very few that get them) side-effects are not worth the risk to me.

In his defense, he said that he has a similar patient. She did everything "right" and was doing well. She choose not to do Tamoxifen as well. Then several years later- it came back and the diagnosis is not good. He said she hasn't said it but he suspects that there is a tiny bit of regret that she didn't do the Tamoxifen when she had the chance. He said if I was his wife- he would want to do everything possible to keep me healthy and cancer-free for as long as possible. I appreciated his honesty.

We left it with-- He asked me to pray about it. And he would support me in my decision of whether to try it or not. He said we could just try it for a month and see how I react. Then maybe a month more. And another... until I had a reaction. (He was hinting to the fact he didn't think I'd have a problem and he'd get me to take it for the full 5 years. Oh! He is a sly one. LOL)
He said that if a reaction came up- we'd stop. OR- for the most part, any side-effect I would encounter- they would have another drug to deal with it. My anti-drug-self had to chuckle. I could start Tamoxifen, drug free and walk away in five years a full-fledged drug addict. Wahoo! Sounds fun, right?

The tricky thing is that there's no "RIGHT" answer to Cancer. [That sounds like a catchy slogan!] Dr. Thomas was absolutely right though. It has to be a matter of prayer and then just have faith it will turn out like God has planned.