HER2 Support Group Forums - View Single Post - Herceptin brain update - help needed from ER-,PR- patients on herceptin for primaries

StephN · 07-29-2006, 11:57 AM

Good questions.
There have been threads on the ubiquitous "chemo brain," but this is the first I have seen on Herceptin brain.
I am ER & PR neg, but only got Herceptin when mets discovered.
I had so much chemo for a while that I had a hard time getting back to functioning reasonably well. At times I really felt like "mush-for-brains." And the effort to think and focus would be very tiring.

Now, I have been off chemo for 4 years and taken Herceptin that whole time.
It is hard to know what is happening since I am a little older and post-meno, with the hormone changes. Many of my friends who do not have cancer think I am doing better then they are in the thinking department.
Sure, I can track better and analyze better by now, but my vocabulary shrunk quite a bit the past few years!

So, give yourself some time and see how you do with these speech and thought losses. I also feel that the stress and worry takes a toll that needs to be factored in to the fatigue equation. This is something we usually keep more to ourselves and don't let on to our family and friends.

Try this, and see how you do:

I can read this! Can You?
fi you cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too
>
> Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe can.
>
> i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was
>rdanieg.
>
> The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch >at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in
> waht oerdr the ltteres in a
> wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat
>ltteer be
> in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll
>raed
> it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed
>er vey
> lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I
> awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs
>forwrad it.

07-29-2006, 11:57 AM	#12
StephN Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Misty woods of WA State Posts: 4,128	Words don't flow Good questions. There have been threads on the ubiquitous "chemo brain," but this is the first I have seen on Herceptin brain. I am ER & PR neg, but only got Herceptin when mets discovered. I had so much chemo for a while that I had a hard time getting back to functioning reasonably well. At times I really felt like "mush-for-brains." And the effort to think and focus would be very tiring. Now, I have been off chemo for 4 years and taken Herceptin that whole time. It is hard to know what is happening since I am a little older and post-meno, with the hormone changes. Many of my friends who do not have cancer think I am doing better then they are in the thinking department. Sure, I can track better and analyze better by now, but my vocabulary shrunk quite a bit the past few years! So, give yourself some time and see how you do with these speech and thought losses. I also feel that the stress and worry takes a toll that needs to be factored in to the fatigue equation. This is something we usually keep more to ourselves and don't let on to our family and friends. Try this, and see how you do: I can read this! Can You? fi you cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too > > Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe can. > > i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was >rdanieg. > > The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch >at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in > waht oerdr the ltteres in a > wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat >ltteer be > in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll >raed > it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed >er vey > lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I > awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs >forwrad it. __________________ "When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest." H.D. Thoreau Live in the moment. MY STORY SO FAR ~~~~ Found suspicious lump 9/2000 Lumpectomy, then node dissection and port placement Stage IIB, 8 pos nodes of 18, Grade 3, ER & PR - Adriamycin 12 weekly, taxotere 4 rounds 36 rads - very little burning 3 mos after rads liver full of tumors, Stage IV Jan 2002, one spot on sternum Weekly Taxol, Navelbine, Herceptin for 27 rounds to NED! 2003 & 2004 no active disease - 3 weekly Herceptin + Zometa Jan 2005 two mets to brain - Gamma Knife on Jan 18 All clear until treated cerebellum spot showing activity on Jan 2006 brain MRI & brain PET Brain surgery on Feb 9, 2006 - no cancer, 100% radiation necrosis - tumor was still dying Continue as NED while on Herceptin & quarterly Zometa Fall-2006 - off Zometa - watching one small brain spot (scar?) 2007 - spot/scar in brain stable - finished anticoagulation therapy for clot along my port-a-catheter - 3 angioplasties to unblock vena cava 2008 - Brain and body still NED! Port removed and scans in Dec. Dec 2008 - stop Herceptin - Vaccine Trial at U of W begun in Oct. of 2011 STILL NED everywhere in Feb 2014 - on wing & prayer 7/14 - Started twice yearly Zometa for my bones Jan. 2015 checkup still shows NED 2015 Neuropathy in feet - otherwise all OK - still NED. Same news for 2016 and all of 2017. Nov of 2017 - had small skin cancer removed from my face. Will have Zometa end of Jan. 2018. Last edited by StephN; 07-29-2006 at 11:59 AM..