Hormone therapy

 I have started anastrozole, which I will be on for the next five year. It's a pill I take every day, I'm doing well with it so far. I'm also taking calcium and a D3 supplement to try to keep my bone density from decreasing further. I have osteopenia (not unusual given everything), and it's fine, I just don't want it to get worse. My oncologist wants me to take another drug in addition to the anastrozole called ribociclib. It's not approved for my situation, but recent studies have been promising. I had initially agreed to do this (assuming we could get insurance approval), but the more I think about it and look into it, the less I want to. This medication has more side effects the one I'm on, and those side effects can be more severe. It will also involve regular monitoring of my heart and liver, since those can be affected. I've realized that I have done so many things to try to reduce my risk of recurrence, that I've reached a point where I don't feel like I need to absolutely max out those efforts. I can do many but not all of the things that are recommended, and I will still be in a better place than I was before this all began. I will trade "an additional reduction in my risk of recurrence" for "feeling good a couple of years sooner" and I won't regret it at all.

I think back to what my ob-gyn told me at the beginning of all of this, that my cancer doctors would be focused on my cancer, and it was up to me to be focused on my life. I'm doing my best.