[tousled1]

I started Herceptin only one week after my surgery and the plan was to do it every 3 weeks. Well, I got my first Herceptin dose and I experienced such severe side effects that I decided to go the every week dose. Side effects include, bot not limited to:

constant runny nose
severe joint pain
vision loss
hearing loss
constant dull headache
fatigue
insomnia
mood swings
soft/brittle/breaking nails (they were great during chemo)
cognitive thinking/reasoning problems
consistant low blood counts (get Procrit shots)

The headaches and joint pain got so bad that my oncologist sent me for a PET/CT scan and an MRI of the brain. Thankfully they both came back clean.

I took time off Herceptin since I was going away and really wanted to feel like a "normal" person. The joint pain and constant headache improved but did not go away completely. Everything else stayed pretty much the same. I was off Herceptin for 27 days.

I went back on Herceptin yesterday (September 29th). Got my loading dose and will go back again next week. After that I am going to again try the every 3 weeks.

I still have joint pain and pain in my lower right rib cage area so oncologist scheduled another PET/CT scan for October 16th.

I realize that without Herceptin us HER2 women would be left out in the cold, so to speak. I know that there are many women on this board who have been on Herceptin for a long time and some who are approaching the end of their year and are extremely anxious about going off herceptin.

My quality of life while taking Herceptin has been greatly affected (negatively) because of the side effects and I can't wait until my year of Herceptin is finished. And please do realize that's just my opinion for myself.