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Chelee · 12-13-2007, 01:46 PM

Anne, When I went through chemo I know at my cancer center the nurses would *not* do the infusion if they could not get a good blood return. So that is normal. As far as the flush feeling really cold some times in my experience that is just from them doing it too fast. For instance if I let them speed up my herceptin it was cold and I didn't like the way it felt so I made them slow it down. But I think its a good call if your port is not working right.

As to the muga...I've personally never had one...I always had ECHO's. But from what I understand when you have a muga they take your blood & mix it with radioactive material & it has to sit for a while in the lab & then they re-inject it into you before doing the muga. They use some type of a gamma-ray camera to take pictures & a techician will interpet the results. Its more invasive & time consuming.

As to an ECHO you just go in and are asked undress and lay on a exam table on your left side. Then the (tech) sonographer will place a wand (called a sound-wave transducer) on several areas of your chest. The wand has a small amount of gel on it which is harmless to your skin. The sonographer will take lots of pictures of different areas of your heart and that's pretty much it. It is much easier then the muga...non-invasive and you are not exposed to any radiation or radioactive material. Its much better in my opinion. Any time I can avoid radioactive dyes and x-rays...I do. Plus its much faster then doing a muga. I'm not sure if one is really better then another...but it did seem like more women were having muga's. But it seems that most women that ask their onc for a ECHO instead of muga, there is never a problem. I hope that helps some.

I'm sorry to hear your onc was in a bad mood...there is no excuse for that. My onc is never in a bad mood...but she just WON'T answer my questions and its so frustrating. So I really feel for you. It would of taken your onc a few minutes to explain the difference. But no worries...thankfully we all have this board (thanks to Christinee & Joe) and someone will always answer your questions. Good luck to you.

Chelee

12-13-2007, 01:46 PM	#16
Chelee Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Southern, CA Posts: 2,511	Anne, When I went through chemo I know at my cancer center the nurses would not do the infusion if they could not get a good blood return. So that is normal. As far as the flush feeling really cold some times in my experience that is just from them doing it too fast. For instance if I let them speed up my herceptin it was cold and I didn't like the way it felt so I made them slow it down. But I think its a good call if your port is not working right. As to the muga...I've personally never had one...I always had ECHO's. But from what I understand when you have a muga they take your blood & mix it with radioactive material & it has to sit for a while in the lab & then they re-inject it into you before doing the muga. They use some type of a gamma-ray camera to take pictures & a techician will interpet the results. Its more invasive & time consuming. As to an ECHO you just go in and are asked undress and lay on a exam table on your left side. Then the (tech) sonographer will place a wand (called a sound-wave transducer) on several areas of your chest. The wand has a small amount of gel on it which is harmless to your skin. The sonographer will take lots of pictures of different areas of your heart and that's pretty much it. It is much easier then the muga...non-invasive and you are not exposed to any radiation or radioactive material. Its much better in my opinion. Any time I can avoid radioactive dyes and x-rays...I do. Plus its much faster then doing a muga. I'm not sure if one is really better then another...but it did seem like more women were having muga's. But it seems that most women that ask their onc for a ECHO instead of muga, there is never a problem. I hope that helps some. I'm sorry to hear your onc was in a bad mood...there is no excuse for that. My onc is never in a bad mood...but she just WON'T answer my questions and its so frustrating. So I really feel for you. It would of taken your onc a few minutes to explain the difference. But no worries...thankfully we all have this board (thanks to Christinee & Joe) and someone will always answer your questions. Good luck to you. Chelee __________________ DX: 12-20-05 - Stage IIIA, Her2/Neu, 3+++,Er & Pr weakly positive, 5 of 16 pos nodes. Rt. MRM on 1-3-06 -- No Rads due to compromised lungs. Chemo started 2-7-06 -- TCH - - Finished 6-12-06 Finished yr of wkly herceptin 3-19-07 3-15-07 Lt side prophylactic simple mastectomy. -- Ooph 4-05-07 9-21-09 PET/CT "Recurrence" to Rt. axllia, Rt. femur, ilium. Possible Sacrum & liver? Now stage IV. 9-28-09 Loading dose of Herceptin & started Zometa 9-29-09 Power Port Placement 10-24-09 Mass 6.4 x 4.7 cm on Rt. femur head. 11-19-09 RT. Femur surgery - Rod placed 12-7-09 Navelbine added to Herceptin/Zometa. 3-23-10 Ten days of rads to RT femur. Completed. 4-05-10 Quit Navelbine--Herceptin/Zometa alone. 5-4-10 Appt. with Dr. Slamon to see what is next? Waiting on FISH results from femur biopsy. Results to FISH was unsuccessful--this happens less then 2% of the time. 7-7-10 Recurrence to RT axilla again. Back to UCLA for options.