Reply from TriciaK
That's a good question, Sally! As many of you know, I had breast cancer first in 1985 and a bilateral mastectomy, and then had mets to my spine in 1990. I took tamoxifen faithfully for 5 years and had yearly MRI's. After the 5th MRI, the radiologist wrote "healed metastatic breast cancer" on my chart, and I accepted it as total truth, and promptly put cancer completely out of my mind. My husband and I retired and moved to the mountains in Az, and all was well (I assumed) for the next 9 years or so, until my heart attack on June 30, 2004 (about 14 years since the spine mets). I had not had any kind of scan in all that time until the heart doctor ordered a CT to prepare for heart surgery. That's what found the lung mets, so as I said before, the heart attack saved my life. My oncologist came back into my life and told me I would have had less than 3 months if the CT hadn't found the mets, since I was now her2. I went on herceptin immediately, plus femara and 6 months of navelbine. After my ejection fraction dropped to 30 we had to stop the herceptin, but I was able to be on it for about 15 months, even though the heart attack had caused cardiomyopathy and we knew the herceptin was risky . (I had decided that the risk of another heart attack was better than only 3 months with the cancer risk!) I then had a triple bypass and am doing well at age 77. It makes an interesting story, but I don't reccommend that anyone ignore cancer as completely as I did! I have learned to be vigilant and have scans every 6 months now. The last 2 PETs have shown NED, and I feel very blessed. After the heart attack and a month in the hospital in 2004, my husband and I moved back to civilization and as I said, have been much more vigilant. I know now that there has to be a balance between ignoring the cancer beast and letting fear of it rule your life. I feel very, very humble that I have had another chance! Tricia
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