Five years NEAD!

In the cancer world, there is NED (No Evidence of Disease).  In the metastatic cancer world, there is NEAD (No Evidence of Active Disease).  I'll tell you my story of NEAD.  Five years ago today, after having seven rounds of chemo (Taxotere/Herceptin/Perjeta), I had surgery.  The cancer cells had shrunk, but had hit a platau.  Chemo was taking a toll on me; every session got progressively harder.  So, even though there was no evidence that surgery would improve my life span*, we (myself, my surgeon, and my oncologist) decided that it couldn't hurt, and just might help. 

* It's stage 4.  The purpose of having a mastectomy is to prevent the cancer from leaving the spot of origin to go to other organs.  That had already happened.  My breast cancer had already spread, to my left lung. 

On September 11, 2015, I had a left modified radical mastectomy, with lymph node involvement.  12 out of 24 lymph nodes under my armpit were removed.  This resulted in numbness, soreness, and a lymphadema at-risk status, all of which last to this date.  This also resulted in my status of NEAD.

The chemo shrunk the tumors in the breast and in the lymph nodes, as well as the seven spots in my left lung.  Surgery cut out the tumors from my breast; well, actually the whole breast was cut off.   At the following appointment with my oncologist, I asked her if I could consider myself NED (no evidence of disease).  She told me very kindly that, no, as a metastatic cancer patient, I would never be considered NED.  She could, however, tell me that I was considered NEAD (no evidence of active disease).  You see, the cancer is still there.  The cancer will always be there.  For five years now, however, the cancer cells have been so small as to not be distinguishable from scar tissue.  That news is the best news a metastatic cancer patient can hear.

So, today I celebrate five years NEAD.  It is a joyous day for sure.

via GIPHY