tricia

[sally]

I was wondering why it took having a heart attack to find you lung mets? Didn't you get scanned on a regular basis? Sally

[Adriana Mangus]

I never got scanned. I discoverd mets to rt lung due to naughing cough. Finally doctor ordered x-ray which showed a large mass. I was NED for almost 10 years!

[TriciaK]

That's a good question, Sally! As many of you know, I had breast cancer first in 1985 and a bilateral mastectomy, and then had mets to my spine in 1990. I took tamoxifen faithfully for 5 years and had yearly MRI's. After the 5th MRI, the radiologist wrote "healed metastatic breast cancer" on my chart, and I accepted it as total truth, and promptly put cancer completely out of my mind. My husband and I retired and moved to the mountains in Az, and all was well (I assumed) for the next 9 years or so, until my heart attack on June 30, 2004 (about 14 years since the spine mets). I had not had any kind of scan in all that time until the heart doctor ordered a CT to prepare for heart surgery. That's what found the lung mets, so as I said before, the heart attack saved my life. My oncologist came back into my life and told me I would have had less than 3 months if the CT hadn't found the mets, since I was now her2. I went on herceptin immediately, plus femara and 6 months of navelbine. After my ejection fraction dropped to 30 we had to stop the herceptin, but I was able to be on it for about 15 months, even though the heart attack had caused cardiomyopathy and we knew the herceptin was risky . (I had decided that the risk of another heart attack was better than only 3 months with the cancer risk!) I then had a triple bypass and am doing well at age 77. It makes an interesting story, but I don't reccommend that anyone ignore cancer as completely as I did! I have learned to be vigilant and have scans every 6 months now. The last 2 PETs have shown NED, and I feel very blessed. After the heart attack and a month in the hospital in 2004, my husband and I moved back to civilization and as I said, have been much more vigilant. I know now that there has to be a balance between ignoring the cancer beast and letting fear of it rule your life. I feel very, very humble that I have had another chance! Tricia

[AnnemarieF]

Hi,
I worked 6 years with breast cancer. I was 31 at diagnosis and I worked in as a sales representative. Most of my co-workers were young and beginning their lives as I was- getting married, having babies and buying their first home. So having cancer was some what interesting to them (I am not sure that is the right word). This is what I found. You either share with people or you don't. If you tell one person it is no longer a secret. So I don't think selecting people is a good idea. People talk it is just human nature. I was not real open with people and I think if I had it over again I would do things differently because 1.) it created more interest by me being very vague and taking a lot of time off 2.) I am no longer ashamed of my diagnosis 3.) I could have used others support but I chose not to tell them.
Annemarie