[madubois63]

Oh Pinkie and everyone - If We had the answers, we all wouldn't be here at this great site discussing this. There is no right or wrong answer for this one. Every cancer is different as is every person. Why did my friend named Maryann, similar in age (she was 3 years younger), young kids and Greek like me get diagnosed around the same time as me with stage II bc (don't remember all the details) and even though I was stage IV with all the rare stuff, she is the one that passed on and I am still here fighting each new thing that is thrown at me and responding to every treatment they give me???? Maryann did not respond to any thing. She did the miracle Herceptin and all the other chemo's. She got the Tykerb but I think it was too late by then. I am single and have no one besides my elderly mom as my caregiver (my kids are great too, but...). I handle all my own medical care and decisions, the finances, insurance, financial aid for college, financial/co-pay assistance, grocery shopping, cooking and most of the laundry and cleaning. Maryann had a very tentative husband that handled her medical decisions and did everything when she was in treatment. I think I had way more stress on my back, having no one to really share the load with. I had to be aware every second of the day. An on call doctor tried to change a medication in the middle of the night on me and that would have interfered with another long term medication. I was on morphine enjoying the high and pain free existence but still had to get my wits about me and fight the doctor. I yelled at him and made him get my regular doctor on the phone so this guy could look like the a$$ that he was. My point being...???? I am not a statistic!! We are living longer because we are becoming smarter than some of the doctors!! I am proof of that. In the past, no one lived with stage IV Inflammatory bc almost 9 years out especially after occurrence, Acute myeloid Leukemia, a bone marrow transplant (that 10 years ago they would have thought me too old to handle and not done it), severe Graft vs Host disease of the liver (one woman that happened to be one of my clients from the law firm had her transplant at the same time as me. She passed on from GVHD of the skin). And now I have iron over load in my liver that WILL set off alarms at the airport/court house. You have to put your faith in your doctor, medical decisions and yourself. Don't second guess what you have chosen to do. Take the best care of your body as you can and LAUGH as much as possible. Cancer hates the sound of laughter. It means you are living with cancer not becoming your cancer.....