California's second opinion

We came to California to get a second opinion on the course Carolin's treatment. We wanted to be on the front edge of "agressive" because if it reoccurs in the future she would fall into the category of "incurable". We have learned that people can still live quite awhile after it reoccurs but the average is 2 years. Are we doing all we can?

The first doctor was very helpful. This was his field and he knew what he was talking about. He gave the thumbs up for treatment to date, and recommended the Arimadex route after radiation. The second doctor was a founder of this very large clinic. His specialty is surgery. He offered to take our pathology slides to "conference" and get opinions on how invasive the tumour had been. In preparation for our meeting he had consulted with a second oncologist and they suggested the more traditional Tamoxifin instead of the Arimidex. When asked about the difference in his own clinic he said it showed how close the two treatments were in effectiveness.

He spoke at some length about the unmeasured factors. Good diet, physical activity, attitude, and no/low drinking were mentioned as things that we could do to be on the good side of any percentages that we were given. These factors are too complicated to study scientifically but in his experience he was convinced of the usefulness.

So we're coming home today feeling that we have the reassurances that we were after. It was a very worthwhile trip, even if our daughter picked yesterday to lose her first tooth while her mom was out of town.