the No Chemo Update... Official

So, I looked back and I haven't officially told you the no chemo story.


After the argument, and bad feelings in the medical oncologists office, I was sent to a round of tests, bone scan (good) and contrast CT (good) (I have a cyst in my kidney, but its just something that happens when you get old. Yay. ). Also, my tumor was sent for a test as well (part of it), called the oncodx.

I had heard of the oncodx in my forum reading, mostly as a test that might get me out of chemo, but I didn't know all the facts about the test and what it does.... so, this lack of information made the Dr. 's phone call less thrilling right away... I am sorry Dr., you deserved screams of joy.

Anyway... as far as I can piece together, the Oncodx test, looks at 21 genetic markers in your tumor, and decides how aggressive and/or how prone to matastizing your tumor might be, then it places your tumor on a scale from 1 to 100, your total risk of recurrence and general bad behavior of your cancer. 100 being chemo drip for the rest of your life, and 1 being ... well very good. The forums are full of people with an Onco score of 50 who end up doing 3 different types of chemo. A few sources are talking about how mucinous tumors maybe being over medicated and this test will prevent much of that.

So...

My score was a 4... yep, so close to 1 as to be almost unbelievable.

Before you think wait, does this mean she didn't need the mastectomy? The answer to that would be yes, I did need the mastectomy, and I will need the radiation. Radiation cleans up the area.

I had my radiation planning session last Tuesday, I had hoped to be doing it by this week, so it wont effect my schedule too much, but they are still planning.