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Paris,
Usually you start from date of diagnosis. I'm about 4 and 1/2 years out. I think the longer out the less you think of recurrrance thought it's always tucked away in your memory.
I was diagnosed in March of "04... had a partial mastectomy and axillary node dissection. March and April... prim tumor 2.2 cm, 3 DCIS, 4/18 nodes pos. had A/C and Taxol., dose dense and 37 rads.\Treatment finished Nov. of '04. The following May of "05,was the wonderful news of the effectiveness of herceptin. And the question of whether it would be given to those of us " earler stagers" ( 1 and 2 ) . There was a discussion with me, my onc. and an expert at Dana Farber in Boston as to whether I would benefit from 1 year of Herceptin. The decision was left to me. At the time the thought was if you were beyond 6 moths out of treatment , then there was a big question as to it's effectiveness. I choose to go for it and I finished up in May of '06. I'm very happy with my decision.
My feeling is once you've beeen diagnosed, there is always that lingering question as to if and when it will ever come back. Of course they say the longer out, the better your chances to beat this beast.... but only time will tell. I try not to dwell on it too much because I feel fine and look good at the grand age of 68.... just turned.
I've decided that when I hit the 5 year mark, I'm going to have a grand bash with music and all. I hope you do too.
Love and luck,
Carol
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