Day Fifty-Seven: More Detail

We met with Dr. Santiago, the radiation oncologist, on Wednesday, April 12, Day Fifty-Seven. This was our second meeting with Dr. Santiago. She has been very thorough in each of those meetings, providing plenty of detail and answering any questions we have had.

She shared and explained the pathology report. She also went over what will happen when Teri begins her radiation therapy, from first session through to the end.

We’re still waiting for the results of that Oncotype test, and Dr. Santiago has her staff checking for it daily. She said that if it comes back before our meeting with the medical oncologist and the score is in the low chance of recurrence range then she’ll go ahead and schedule Teri for a planning session. That will entail taking measurements so that the radiation can exactly focused.

Dr. Santiago seemed pretty confident that if Teri scores in the low chance of recurrence range she may not require chemo, but will probably get hormone therapy, since the type of cancer cells she had were ER and PR positive, meaning they are especially receptive to that kind of treatment.

That Ocontype test will also help inform how long Teri will require radiation therapy. It could be anywhere from three to six weeks of daily treatments. So we wait for the results of that test.