prognosis schmognosis

it doesn't matter what they "tell" you. it only matters what really happens. what they "tell" you can give you false hope (as in the people who were node NEGATIVE and ended up metastatic within a year of diagnosis) or can give you a false sense of grim resignation to a life of illness followed by an early death (look at christine!!! mets to the brain way back in the past already and here today to support, inform and fight for better treatments).

still, who doesn't get caught up in all of the stats and numbers and worries and "well, maybe if i do this, i can increase my chances by 2 percent"s? my personal "mission" is to listen to the statistics when and ONLY when making treatment decisions, and then to shoot arrows through them the rest of the time because the only thing that matters is the reality of how i am doing.

be here now,

lauren

Yes, lauren, "be here now" is a good thing to put into our heads. That was one from the 60's that easily plugs in for me! Today is here, and I have more than enough to do.
The main thing to remember is that many of us are writing new chapters to whaat they will use as "prognosis" in the near future. The number of the national census is never up-to-date, as are most stats, cancer survival included. For this reason many docs don't put too much stock in them with the new drugs and clinical trials.
I have a friend who is fighting a new recurrance and she says she was given a 60% chance for her treatment to get her to NED. I told her to not let that get her down (it did) and try to boost that figure by being another one to get to remission.