It's a paradoxon in a way: it's fairly easy to find out if you have cancer. As you open the envelope and pull out the pathology report, or as you sit in your doctor's office while he brakes to news to you - then at the latest you know for sure, you have cancer. But no one can definitely ever tell you if/when you're cancer free. According to the expertise of some doctors, you should be okay after 5 years if you had battled the disease successfully and stayed free of recurrence since. Sounds reasonable to me, but what the hell do I know?

This is Ann's and my dilemma right now. One hand there is no sign of anything going on anymore but no scan, blood/urine-test, exam etc., will help us to determine as to whether or know she can be pronounced breast cancer free for now. This causes a lot of stress on us and I know that is sounds weird, but the fact of the matter is that we felt seemingly more "in control" of the situation as we went through the surgeries and started our treatment regimen, as we are at this point, with the tumor removed and no sings of anything else going on.

So at this point we decided, that the only thing we can do is sticking to our plan - which I guess can be seen as the "alternative breast cancer treatment option" - and go for regular check-ups with Dr. Simone. He suggest 4-5 Mammos per year. The problem is, Mammograms may cause cancer, because after all, it's a kind of (exposure to) radiation.

Did I mention "Dilemma" already?....Oh well!