Wow, MandaRe, you have some tough choices to make. I hope that MSKCC will make things clearer for you.

I've had cancer of the oral tongue and reconstructive surgery to replace half of it with a flap from my inner wrist. I went back to teaching after that surgery.Four years later when I had a new primary on the buccal mucosa, I knew that my teaching days were over, even though my speech remains good. It's just more of an effort to talk and at 68 I was only ever going to do relieving or supply teaching anyway. I was thinking of doing some online tutoring which is a real option these days.

My daughter-in-law has just completed a course of inductive chemo for breast cancer. It has shrunk the tumour considerably so that surgery will be much smaller than otherwise. However, when I researched inductive chemo, I found that the stats do not support it as a first choice of action. But then each individual is different and for you it might be the best choice.

All the best
Maureen