Third down and inches - or miles - to go

We heard from the surgeon yesterday and got the best news we've heard in weeks:  No cancer in the lymph nodes.  And all margins on the tissue removed is clear.

The cancer appears to be gone, out of my body, out of my life.  Away with you!

So right now, my diagnosis looks like this:

IDC, 1cm, Stage Ia, Grade 2, 0/4 nodes, ER+/PR+, HER2-

This was the third of four potential hurdles we needed to jump to determine the need for chemo.  

The first was true size of the tumor.  Had it been bigger than 2 cm, chemo would have been strongly indicated.

The second was HER2 status.  Had it been positive, chemo would have been required.

The third was node status.  Being node-negative means chemo is not currently a necessity.

The fourth test will be the Oncotype test, an assay of the breast cancer.  My current understanding is that the oncologist will send part of my tumor off to CA, and in a week or two we will have the results of that test, a "recurrence score" which will be a number between 0 and 100.  There are three categories of numbers (thank you, breastcancer.org)

• Recurrence score lower than 18: This suggests you have a low risk of recurrence. The benefit of chemotherapy is likely to be small and will not outweigh the risks of side effects.
• Recurrence score between 18 and 31: This score suggests you have an “intermediate” risk of recurrence. It’s unclear whether the benefits of chemotherapy outweigh the risks of side effects.
• Recurrence score greater than 31: You have a high risk of recurrence, and the benefits of chemotherapy are likely to be greater than the risks of side effects.

That number will help us and our doctor decide if chemo is the right course of action to beat this beast.

So - we're still waiting.  It feels like it's been forever, and yet I realize it's only been a few weeks since I first found the lump.  Sometimes time simply flies by; other times I feel as thought it's crawling.

But for today I am happy and celebrating; we have positive test results and I'm feeling optimistic that I will get out of this without chemo.  

I still think I'd look good bald, though.