Good news!

I wanted to share some good news with all of you. Today my tumor markers showed significant improvement. My CA27-29, and CA125 were all in the normal range (down from the 900's in February). My CEA was 10 (down from 3150 in February!).
I was on Carboplatin/Taxotere/Herceptin and Xomeda for mets to lungs, liver, bone, and too many lymph to count.
I'll be having a PET in a few weeks to determine extent to uptake.
The bad news is my resting heart rate was 120. It was high a few weeks ago too so it wasn't a fluke. I drink 128oz of water a day. Does anyone have any advice for me? I have an echo test next week. I don't want to flunk it!
Cathy

My resting heart rate was also 120 while on chemo. I finished chemo approx 3 weeks ago and my resting heart rate has dropped to 84 @ minute. (This is still about 10 beats @ minute fast for me.)

I was so concerned about this elevated heart rate that I phoned a chemo doctor regarding this. He advised me not to worry about the heart rate as long as I didn't have OTHER symptoms of heart stress.

I was able to ski and do other sports activities (which no doubt elevated my heart rate to some astronomical amount!) I experienced shortness of breath and I ran of energy much more quickly than normal. (ie, I could only ski half days rather than full days).

The only suggestion I have is... don't worry. You'll probably be OK. There isn't much that you can do to "prep" your heart to pass the test anyhow. This elevated heart rate is probably pretty common to people while on chemo.

Wish you Luck!

I don't know the answer, but I wanted to say that is great news!

I saw my onc. today and I can continue in a "rest period" (I'm only on Herceptin wkly + Zomeda 1/4wks). I'm not NED but my tumor markers are stable. I have tumor markers drawn every three weeks. I am going on my 6th week off chemo. Yahoo!

In response to the post below by Karyn: My onc. has patients that have been NED and on Herceptin for 8-10 years after having extensive mets to bones and liver. It sounds like you are a good advocate for your mom. She really needs you right now. She is probably physically and emotionally just too tired to deal with this without a strong advocate.
My onc also said herceptin often makes other chemo. work better (synergistic). It is only a very small percentage of people that have cardio problems on Herceptin. The majority of cardio. problems happen when people are on A/C + herceptin, or go on Herceptin shortly after A/C. The taxanes (taxol and taxotere) have not been shown to cause higher cardio. problems (they have their own host of side effects!)
Cathy

Cathy W.
Congrats.. we love to hear the good news here.

Hugs,
Janelle