Hi all, After surgery in January, it has just been confirmed I will need chemo followed by radiotherapy. I have got my head round that but what I am struggling with is when to start as I have a holiday booked (prior to diagnosis). My oncologist has said its not ideal but has supported delaying treatment but it will be bang on the 12 weeks. I have IDC Grade 3 HR&PR positive. Should I cancel the holiday and start treatment straight away or have a fab time away with friends and start when I get back?
Hello. I was in a situation last summer where I was diagnosed with bilateral breast cancer, grade 2 and DCIS, four weeks before we were due to go on our annual, all family, month in the sun.
Everyone is different but there is no way I could have gone on holiday knowing that I had a cancer in me and could grow, even a tiniest bit. I was begging my consultant for the first possible surgery (we had private insurance so was able to get surgery a couple of weeks later) but even that short wait was horrendous. But as I say, some people are really calm and could cope with the wait, but I wasn’t one of them.
What I would say is you may need to talk to your travel insurance company if you do go on holiday as when we did go away post surgery they was a lot of questions about diagnosis and whether I was awaiting treatment (I wasn’t) so that might be worth a chat.
I can say that when we did cancel our holiday, my insurance company paid out pretty quick - we had a privately booked villa, airport hotel room to the tune of £6,000 and they paid the lot. We were going to claim flights too but TUI offered to move them to this summer free of charge.
Good look with your treatment xx
As already said, everyone is different. I delayed chemo, so i could get some eggs in the freezer. My oncologist said no more than 2 weeks. I had egg collection one day, chemo the next. To be honest, I just wanted to get started. I had the mentality, the sooner you start, the sooner you finish. Best wishes.