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Re: Question?
Hey Girl!
Just my humble opinion...
Given with huge doses of love and concern...
No vast medical knowledge...
But some very real first-hand experience...
I think you're okay on the PET scan front...
BUT PLEASE, PLEASE...for me, if for no other reason...insist on an MRI of your brain. It's completely painless, and as Lani just posted...
Almost 40% of node positive, stage 3, HER2 women (that's you and me Nancy!) end up with brain mets, after successful treatment with Herceptin.
The cancer beasties have nowhere else to hide, so they go off to our brains...where Herceptin can't get them..it's too big to get into our brains! Until a post-treatment MRI, or concurrent treatment with Tykerb AND Herceptin becomes "standard of care" (and it WILL become standard of care...it HAS to) ...we have to be pro-active...and INSIST.
Nancy, and all my other node-positive friends out there...you have absolutely NOTHING to lose by insisting on the MRI...and so much to lose, if you don't catch brain mets early (God forbid!).
Again...JMHO...sent with TONS of love...
Denise
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1/11-needle biopsy
2/11-Lumpectomy/axillary node dissection - Stage 3c, ER/PR-14/17 nodes
3/11 - Post-op staph infection,cellulitis, lymphedema,seroma,ARRRGH!
4/12/11-A/C x 4, then T/H x 4, H only,Q3 weeks
8/26/11 finished Taxol!!!
10/7/11 mastectomy/DIEP recon
11/11 radiation x28
1/12/12 1st CANCER-VERSARY!
1/12 Low EF/Herceptin "Holiday" :(
2/12 EF up - Back on Herceptin, heart meds
4/2/1212 surgery to repair separated incision from DIEP recon
6/8/12 Return to work :)
6/17/12 Fall, shatter wrist,surgery to repair/insert plate :(
7/10/12 last Herceptin
7/23/12 Brain Mets %$&#! 3cm and 1cm
8/10/12 Gamma knife surgery, LOTS of steroids;start H/Tykerb
8/23/12 Back to work
12/20/12 Injure back-3 weeks in wheel chair
1/12/13 2nd CANCER-VERSARY!
1/14/13 herniate disk in back - surgery to repair
1/27/13 Radiation necrosis - edema in brain - back on steroids - but not back to work - off balance, poor cordination in right arm
5/3/13 Start Avastin to shrink necrosis
5/10/13 begin weaning steroids
6/18/13 Brain MRI - Avastin seems to be working!
6/20/13 quarterly CT - chest, abdomen, pelvis - All Clear!
7/5/13 finally off steroids!!
7/7/13 joined the ranks of the CHEMO NINJAS I am now Tekuto Ki Ariku cancer assassin!
7/13/13 Symptoms return - back on steroids
7/26/13 Back on Avastin - try again!
8/26/13 Not ready to return to classroom yet :( But I CAN walk without holding onto things! :)
9/9/13 Brain MRI - fingers crossed
“ Life is a grindstone, and whether it grinds you down or polishes you up is for you, and you alone, to decide. ” – Cavett Robert
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