Hi @cctoo —

After my second mastectomy in 2020, my margins and sentinel node were both clear of cancer cells. I definitely wasn’t stage 4. I figure I was stage 1, if that. Once I had my margins and a node were clean, I just didn’t care. I thought I was safe.

In retrospect, I wish I had given Arimidex a chance. However, I had truly horrible hot flashes after chemo in 2005, and I didn’t want to go through that again! By 18 months later, the cancer had metastasized.

I do tend to believe it was fate — or serendipity, as my Mom would have said — that I fell when I did. I had to have kyphoplasty, and a sample that was taken at that time confirmed cancer caused my spinal fracture moreso than the fall I took.

And you know what? I haven’t had a single hot flash in the three months since I started letrozole!