[Laurel]

Yeah, Valerie, I think we all get a little anxious over the stats at times. I refuse to hang on them, either way. What does it hurt to be an optimist? Nothing. I once had a friend who chose to see the glass half full...ALL THE TIME! Irritated the heck out of me, because I came from a long line of pessimists! When my friend got cervical cancer, she didn't despair. No, she believed she would survive to become a mother and she did. Today over a dozen years later she is the mother of two soon to be teenagers. She plans on living to be an old woman. Why not?

I watched her and decided she was on to something. What was going to be was going to be. I have no real control over my life, really. I do have control over how I deal with the adversities of life. I can choose to see the glass half full.

I do not know whether Herceptin will stay the cancer beast from my life indefinitely. I choose to believe it will. It's as simple as that. If I, God forbid, should recur I'll deal with that then. For now what does it hurt to believe in the best? Is that naive? Don't know. Don't care either. It lets me sleep at night and move forward with my life in the morning.

Of course, I wouldn't mind that 80% either......