herceptin
Hi Heblaj!
My tumour is a new primary/recurrance. I had better start from the beginning!
I live in the UK, by the way, so you might not be familiar with some of the chemo mentioned here. Anyway, here goes!
I was diagnosed in 2003 with a large tumour in my right breast. I had a mastectomy, FEC chemo and rads. I was then put on Tamoxifen for five years. All was well until last year when I developed a tumour in my left breast. This was dismissed as 'hormonal' and a few months passed before I could convince them to take me seriously. By the time they did, I had skin involvement. I was put straight on Taxotere in order to shrink the tumour prior to surgery. This didn't work and after five doses I was transferred to EC.
The EC did shrink the tumour but not enough for surgery. My onc put me on Herceptin and was going to try another chemo along with it after the first dose. However, when I saw him last week just prior to having my second dose of Herceptin, he was amazed at how much my tumour had shrunk with the Herceptin alone and told the nurse to 'Scrub the chemo, lets continue with Herceptin alone'!
The Herceptin has worked far, far better than the EC. It took four ECs to shrink my tumour a little, but with only one Herceptin it went from the size of an orange to a golf ball. Before starting Herceptin, I could not press my breast in ....... it was like pushing against a rock. Within a week of my first dose I could press my breast and feel it go in. I can even feel my ribs under the breast tissue now! There is still some tumour there, high up in the outer quadrant of the breast but the rest of my breast is now soft. The skin nodules are also healing rapidly. My onc called it amazing!
I don't take any supplements only Omega 3 oils from Wilkinson's (a store) and occasionally iron tablets. My diet is normal, no special foods or supplements there either.
I am on Arimidex one per day as well as the three weekly Herceptin.
Hope this helps you Heblaj.
love
taff
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