Hi. I am/was triple negative and struggled with the choice to do radiation after surgeries and chemo. I also had both my oncologist and radiologist do the math for recurrance with or without radiation. I was so emotionally done with all things cancer after chemo that I just wanted to be done and move on. However, I had family and friends urging me to do radiation for the long term benefit.

I feel radiation was part of the "package" treatment for breast cancer (if that makes sense). But if it decreases your chance of having to do any and/or all of this again. I say just get er done...

I am triple negative and done with chemo. Surgery next month and the radiation specialist told me the same thing. she did the math in front of me and if I didn't do radiation, I have about a 60% chance of it coming back by the time I am 80. I would rather deal with radiation than cancer at 80.

I'm triple negative, done with chemo, and just had surgery. I was given a Pathological Complete Response, but will still do radiation as a preventative measure. I was told that this will reduce my chances of recurrence by about 50%, so I'm going for it. :)

Hello all, I'm triple negative, diagnosed in 1990, had chemo & 36 radiation treatments to my left chest, also had lumpectomy. Diagnosed again in 1993 on the right side, had lumpectomy, chemo & 36 rads for a total of 72! I didn't find out till almost 20 yrs & 2 more recurrences that the radiation burned my pericardium ( the sack that covers the heart & lubricates it) it was stuck to my heart , preventing the heart from pumping properly. They had to open my chest and carefully peel and cut away this sack from my heart . I'm not trying to scare anybody or make you worry more than you already do, but I never heard of this till it happened to me and discovered that it's not that uncommon. Just want you to be able to make informed decisions about your treatment options. Because of radiation I now have congestive heart failure .if I had it to do over I would not have radiation. Just my thoughts. God bless you all .

Thank you ladies, I appreciate your responses. I'm almost halfway through 33 radiation sessions and it's so hard to hold my affected arm back for treatments because my skin and muscles are so tight that sometimes cry even after taking anxiety meds. I've been going through physical therapy and gained most of my range of motion in my arm/shoulder thankfully, but it still hurts so much to lay on that table. I try relaxing and visualization but some days are just harder than others I guess. I can't wait to be done with treatment.