The next bits....

Radiotherapy
Today I have been for my Radiotherapy planning and check out my new permanent tattoo (can you see it??). I have 4 dots strategically placed; one down my cleavage, one just under my ribs and one either side of my body.
The whole planning took an hour or so including talking thru side effects with nurses and docs (fatigue and skin reactions [sunburn like redness, pain and peeling]) and being measured up for the tattoos and getting CT scans so they could plan my treatment.
I am due to get 15 treatments to my right boob and then 5 treatments called "Boosters" which are just given locally on my scar area. I have been given aqueous cream to rub in to try and help prevent the sore skin and advised about washing and bra-wearing precautions which I will need to adapt to during my treatment and for up to 6 weeks afterwards. So I am all ready to go now :-D

Hormone Treatment
After the hard-core treatments are out of the way I then will need to start on the hormonal therapies. It has been recommended that I go onto Tamoxifen tablets for 5 years and also they are recommending combining this with Zoladex injections too.
These therapies are aimed at blocking the estrogen responsiveness of my Cancer. Tamoxifen is aimed at targeting the estrogen receptors on the cancer cells and blocking estrogen stimulating them. Zoladex essentially shuts down my ovaries, putting them to sleep and switching off the production of estrogen in my body.
I am only weekly responsive to estrogen (score 3/8 on some of my biopsies only - others are negative) so the relative benefit of these treatments isn't clear. It might not really give me any significant benefit, however, I am willing to take any small chance that I can to improve my survival. There is a high chance of recurrance in the first 2 years in patients whom are "Negative" for hormone receptors.. as after the chemo and radio are done, that's it for treatment. So I am latching onto my Estrogen positive status and am happy to get further treatments that might help. I am quite impressed that despite the fact that its borderline whether I will benefit from these treatments they are still recommending we try them. Every little helps! Now I am going to go off and look up what side-effects I could have to look forward to with these drugs.