Change of plans

We met with an amazing oncologist today - one both John and I feel we can completely trust. He gave us a lot of interesting information and even though it is unconventional we have made a decision. I will be starting Chemotherapy next week. The idea is that when you start chemo you immediately halt the progression of the cancer cells. Multiple doctors have already confirmed that because of my age and size of the original tumor that no matter what I will need chemotherapy. This is a new type of treatment. It is a way to monitor if the chemo is actually working because they can track the size of the tumor and watch it shrink. He is also using a fairly new drug that does not have as severe side effects as traditional treatment. I will certainly lose my hair :( After an 18 week treatment and everything looks like it has worked I will then have surgery to remove anything that might be left of the tumor. I may still chose at that time to have a double mastectomy if my gene testing comes back positive. I will then be on a hormone therapy called tamoxifen for 5 years. Doing things in this order may prevent me from having radiation. None of this made any sense at first but now we understand how it works. Before anything I will have a needle biopsy to see if the suspicious "lymph node" on the MRI does indeed have cancer in it. I would be happy to explain things further in you would like - just call me. I am feeling confident in this decision but any concerns I would love to hear. Now I am off to find a wig - I only have a week before these lovely locks come out.