[Tessa]

Hi,

I live in Europe and hence am subject to prevailing opinion here. For what it's worth, doctors in Europe completely agree with your oncologists. After the first year no more scans unless some symptom warrants it. This seemed intuitively a bad idea to me, on the basis that several women have mentioned, namely that the earlier something is detected the easier it will be to squelch it. However the radiologist here told me that this is not the case, that outcome /survival - all those alarming words - are not positively affected by more aggressive testing. I then checked on the National Institutes of Health site, and found the same thing.

It is a relief to just go in for my every-six-months post-HERA study check-ups (blood, annual mammograms/x-rays and abdominal ultra-sound if I need reassurance) and not get stressed about ct-scans and mris.

It's hard to relax at first, but amazingly enough it does get easier,

Tessa