“That’s up to the individual, right? I want to know.” “Oh, you want to know if you’re gonna die of cancer?” Well, that did me in. She tried to recover, saying it would only lead patients to worry, but as I continued to ask questions, that insensitivity colored everything. She predicted that I would not need chemotherapy but would definitely need radiation—five to ten treatments if I was lucky. In fact, she said I would be on a hormone blocker for five years, nullifying any natural estrogen my body still produced. She wasn’t receptive to my questions about what that would mean for my quality of
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