***Request for those of you finished with/finishing one year of Herceptin***

[mts]

Finished 1 yr in July '06. Dx'd Aug. '04

Crusty nose - Gone
Sinus drip - gone
Rosacea - gone
Itchy skin - Almost gone
Fingernails & toenails - not splitting anymore
Hair - looks better than ever, growing like "the good 'ol days"
Water gain - still lingers, swollen feet by noon and have gone up in shoe size.
Vision- need glasses now; could have been the chemo?
Mood - much better now that I no longer have the queezy feeling


Maria (MTS)

[panicked911]

wow thaks to all of you for keeping us updated. i will be finishig a year of herceptain on Wednesday - day before my 45th b'day ! I did not do chemo - but am strongly pr and er positive so on arimidex and lupron. - I am told it takes three months for hercpetain to leave your system. WIll be interestig to see which of my symptoms abate - memory loss, aches, thin nails, ADD, weight gain are the biggies . Will keep you all updated.

Susanne

[panicked911]

opps forgot to add that I started herceptain weekly and then went to every three weeks end of April. Symptoms definitely increased after I switched to every three weeks.

Susanne

[EllaD]

This is all very interesting and informative. I finish my herceptin in January and will check back to post any improvement I notice. It's hard for me to tell sometimes if my side effects are left from Taxol, such as my neuropathy. That continues to be a major block in my progress. I am fatigued but again, it has been so long - is it herceptin or chemo?? I stopped wearing my wig the beginning of October. Had my hair colored and just evened off. It has not grown one little bit like it would have in the "old days". It will be interesting to see if that changes when I am off Herceptin. Thanks to everyone!


EllaD

[janet/FL]

Ella
I think you will see some postiive changes when you are done with Herceptin. Much of the Taxotere pain left, my eyesight went back to what it was (in some ways it was actually better on Herceptin!) and my hair is growing in much faster. Well, I think it is. It has always grown rather slowly. Nails haven't really improved, yet. I am still hoping. Actually, I am hoping they will be better than before!
Do let us know what it is like when you finish!
Janet

[bmuenks]

I've been off herceptin for three months now. My eyebrows have grown back for the first time since chemo! The direahha has also improved a lot . I've had some trouble with my connection so my user name has changes but I am still BERTA

[Olga]

Dear Rhonda!

My history of bc is similar to yours. At the age of 42 I had lumpectomy (Stage1, 1,9 cm, 0 nodes, ER/PR-, Her2+++) on 12 Jan 05, finished CEF chemo on 30 May 05, 30 rads on 16 Aug 05. I had my last Herceptin on 15 Sept 06. I had no problems with Herceptin, only runny nose sometimes. Thank you for wonderful homepage. Olga (Russian from Austria).

[Mary Jo]

Well, I felt it was time to FINALLY post. My last herceptin was October 11, 2006. Here we are, Nov. 3, 2006 and I am feeling awesome. I handled herceptin pretty well. I received my herceptin every 3 weeks for 1 full year. The worst symptom that I had - or I probably should say the most persistent symptom I had was left rib and side pain. My breast cancer, by the way, was on the right side. I also experienced some diarrehea and had more gas than normal. Naturally, it scared me countless times during herceptin treatment, thinking DEFINITELY I had cancer on my left side ribs. My oncologist assured me each visit that I was "perfect" and there was nothing over on that side and she wasn't concerned. Well.............low and behold...............................the rib/side pain is gone. So, it must have been the herceptin causing this because it is over. I'll get occasional twinges but hardly anything at all. The gas and diarrehea are over as well.


So, I'm getting on with my life.............thankful for each day the Lord gives me.

Mary Jo

[hutchibk]

I just might be the odd-ball out here.... I have been on herc for 15 months now and we intend to keep me on it indefinitely, as long as it continues to work. I started Herc with Taxol/Carbo Aug 05 after a PET and rising tumor markers revealed small spots in my lungs/chest nodes/underarm node. Dropped Taxol/Carbo in January and stayed on Herc. Rising tumor markers and PET revealed again in Aug 06 that I had 3 small spots in chest nodes again, so we added Taxol back in (no Carbo this time because it was beating up my bone marrow too much by the time I finished it in January). At this point I am on Taxol and Herc indefinitely to 'control and suppress' disease. So far since August, CA15.3 tumor markers have stayed stable in the mid 20's - so at least they aren't rising! In the months from Jan - Aug this year when I was on Herc only, I didn't notice any terrible or distinct side effects... but then all I had to compare it to were the side effects that came along with chemo. Luckily I have tolerated all chemos and the herc pretty well. The Taxol/Herc combo is not too bad. Mostly just peripheral neuropathy in toes and fingertips, and no hair/eyelashes/eyebrows, but all in all I handle it really well. Oh, and runny nose with some nasal dryness and scabbing, but I can handle that.

I will be the test case for what Herc does to you after 2,3,5,10 years (I hope!)... I just hope it continues to work for a long time. But hey - I haven't even scratched the surface yet of other chemo drugs that I can try and then there's always Tykerb!! Yippee...


B.Hutch
DX 11/15/03
Right Mastectomy 12/9/03
Stage IIb, 1 positive node
HER2 +
ER+ PR+
2.5 cm tumor
TAC - every 3 weeks x 6, ended 5/30/04
NED

DX Recurrance 8/23/05
8 small spots in Lungs/chest nodes/underarm node
Herceptin/Taxol/Carboplatinum - every 3 weeks x 7, ended 1/30/06
NED

Stayed on herceptin - every 3 wks.

DX Recurrance 8/29/06
3 small spots in chest nodes
Herceptin/Taxol - every 3 weeks indefinitely or until we need to change
to something else.

[sabpri]

I finished my one year of Herceptin on 9/27 and FINALLY, my eyelashes and eyebrows are starting to fill, and my hair is growing at my normal fast pace!! I didn't realize that the Herceptin was affecting my hair growth. I thought it might have been the effects of the chemo. I am SOOO excited to see my eyelashes and eyebrows thickening up, and my hair finally starting to turn the corner. It also feels a lot softer.

I wish I could say I felt a lot more energetic than I did before, but I don't (of course I also have twin 3 year olds and a 5 year old!). I never really had any other problems on Herceptin.

Natalie

[lili7]

I was Dx on 12/05. Surgery ( Mast -left side only -on 2/06. I finished FEC100 ( x6 ) on July/06 and started Herceptin (x 17) 3 weeks after chemo, given every 3 weeks . No aromatose given so far. I was postmenopause -56 yrs old when BC was DX: Stage 1, grade 3, ER+ PR- and HER2 +++ .....
So now I finished my 4th.dosis of Herceptin. Except for very bad headache for 2 days and itchy /dry skin and lots of problems with toe-nails ( losing some of them) can not say that is so bad as I expected. I am usually tired though -on and off. If I move around seems to go away . Short memory stinks and yes dry eyes and like a constant nose cold. Joint pains and sort of electrical shocks on extremities and surgery area. ( maybe due to Chemo and not Herceptin)
Will keep you posted when I finish.
HUGS all and keep moving!! I lost 5 pounds since I started Herceptin..I paint, walk and do lots of house cleaning and laundry Haha
LILI7

PS: Forgot to tell you that right after chemo my hair started to grow fast together with eyebrows and eyelashes. it continues with Herceptin but at a slower rate.

[Becky]

Ended Herceptin 9/29. Runny nose is much better. And, like Natalie - my hair is growing faster - absolutely it is (because I have roots to do so I can really tell). Its nice because it has taken me over a year to get to the style I wanted in a picture (needed about 3 inches of growth) and I am just about there. This should have been a breeze but my stylist said my hair was growing sooooo slow (but at least I have it - my pix on this site is recent (taken at the end of August)).


That's it so far.

Becky