[chrisy]

Hi Belle,

So sorry to hear this news. But do not lose heart, there are treatments that can still work and that your mom will most likely be able to tolerate.

Sounds as if her symptoms are caused by the malignant cells in the pleura, so an effective chemo regimen would reduce those symptoms.

My experience with Taxol was that it was quite tolerable. I had Taxol/Carboplatin/Herceptin weekly - so it's not exactly the same as your mom's plan. As you say, everyone responds differently, but for me (with premeds to prevent nausea) I felt pretty good during the entire 6 months of treatment. Most people also receive a steroid premed to prevent allergic reaction to the Taxol - this made my face flush and also interfered with my sleep and I was able to get the dose reduces. But first things first, see how she does with it.

As I said, I felt well the entire time although towards the end I felt fatigued. It depleted my red/white blood cells but in my case, not enough to delay treatment or need "boosters". I also never had any nausea and in fact many evenings after treatment we'd go out for burritos.

In general the taxanes are more tolerable than the anthracylines (Epirubicin is one of those!), so she may do just fine.

Of course you want to get the ok on the supplements - I always keep my doctors in the loop.

As for the surgery, there actually has been some data in the past year indicating a better prognosis if you DO have the breast surgery, even with Stage IV disease. But you do not need to push or decide this right now - take one step at a time and see how mom does on the chemo.

Hang in there