[Becky]

I am always into a lively discussion and I am rather late in the game here.

As far as markers are concerned, although they may not work for everybody, they do work 69% of the time (at least that number was reported somewhere in this thread). This is a non invasive, radiation free way of knowing that something is going on. I am not a simple person but I am a very logical person so... I do think that finding mets as early as possible is good for a number of reasons. First, the tumor(s) would be smaller. To me, it would seem that cleaning a pan with just alittle burned on food is easier than a pan with a ton of encrustation. Likewise, stepping on a bug is easier than killing a lion. One liver met can be radio abalated and then get Herceptin (lets say). A fully loaded liver needs a lot of guns. Also, a fully loaded liver can be causing life threatening symptoms. Some tumors, in the wrong location, can be cutting off the blood supply to the liver causing portions to die (and all the toxic reactions that occur because of tissue death). Symptoms are there for a reason and in the case of mets, none of those reasons are good. It is not like the flu where the symptoms are actually the result of your body fighting off the bug and winning. Symptoms from mets are the result of your body losing.

When it comes to the brain, I think early detection is even more important. You can try less invasive treatments (Tykerb, certain chemos, gamma or cyber knife) before doing WBR (of which you usually can only do once). I feel very strongly about the brain because the brain is who you are.

Just as detecting cancer as early as possible is important for the first go around, it is just as important in the second go around imho. Before tumors are so big or abundant that they start shedding to even more locations - including the brain!

As Stage 2A I got baseline CTs, bone scan and a year out, a brain MRI. Now we know what's there and if I should need scans again because of markers or symptoms, if something new is there, it probably isn't good news. But I do markers. Are they a little scary? Yes they are. Once mine went from 11 to 21. In time, I learned that is my "flip flop" window with my numbers always going up and down in that window. Do I get anxious? Yes - I just had another breast lump that was analyzed to death and was determined a cyst (which by that time the lump was already gone). I found it during my monthly breast exam. Do I get scared to do the monthly? YES, YES, YES but I DO them. Cancer and its vigiliante aftermath is scary. Very, very scary so we must be brave and sometimes in my case - you have to pretend to be brave and do all the brave things - (what I mean by this is if I waited just 9 days for my lump, it would have disappeared on its own). And if you don't want to know, I suppose that's fine. But do you want to live? I think most do so you should want to know so sometimes, you have to walk into an even darker and scarier place - the time where you wait... wait for the marker result, wait for the scan result, wait the days until the scheduled mammogram. Time is not our friend and time is also our best friend (2 years out NED, 5 years out NED). Fear is not our friend but fear is also our best friend (get that lump checked, don't let it go....).

In all, bc survivors (and regardless of our individual status - we are all survivors) are a unique bunch. You all are the best bunch. We are all dressed up to go to the beautiful party of life everyday but underneath our gowns, we are wearing bullet proof vests!

Party on!