For all that have been following my posts on breast cancer, and specifically by mother’s breast cancer, I thank you for your prayers. As I have mentioned before, my Mom is not in the market for life insurance, but I believe that her experience and process offers valuable insight into what women with her level of cancer can expect, and what I can offer is a translation of her experience to younger women who are in the market for life insurance.

Mom met with the radiation oncologist at Rocky Mountain Oncology today and discussed all of the options. As we had guessed, it seems the most important step will be radiation treatment of the area (the breast and adjacent lymph nodes), where they did find malignant cells. Without stopping the cancer at its’ source, according the the oncologist, there would be a very good chance of it recurring within months. The radiation is localized by computer technology to where each treatment takes only a matter of minutes. She will need to do this 5 days a week for 6 weeks.

The other recommendation is an oral medication that will help slow down any cancer cells in the rest of her body. In a younger woman the choice might have been chemotherapy, but at 84 there is some concern about the treatment being as risky as the cancer.

This is not a high grade cancer so her prognosis is good. In a woman looking for life insurance, she might expect to be able to obtain insurance in as little as 1 year post treatment and standard rates in as little as 3-5 years post treatment.

Bottom line. While it may not be time to buy insurance, visiting with an independent agent not long after diagnosis can give you a good idea of the thresholds that need to be met in order to get back to good rates.