eatthefrostingfirst

I was 41 when I was diagnosed with DCIS (Ductal Carcinoma In Situ). The "good" cancer. The non invasive kind. Stage 0. If you're going to get cancer, who doesn't want stage 0? DCIS is so controversial that some doctors say not even to treat it. Why treat a cancer that's contained to the ducts. It MAY not spread. Some say we are over treating DCIS and women are having unnecessary mastectomies. I wasn't taking the chance. Actually even if I wanted to take the chance I couldn't because mine was wide spread and extensive.  I had a single mastectomy- learned the DCIS was grade 3 (aggressive) and went on Tamoxifen for 5 years. I met survivors over the years. Real survivors. Ones who had chemo treatments and lost their hair and were really sick. Survivors who had cancer that wasn't stage 0. I felt like a fraud. I ONLY had a mastectomy. I ONLY had DCIS. It was the good cancer. I had no right classifying myself as a survivor. A mastectomy was the finale.