What kind of info should I be getting?

[Gary Gosselin]

I wanted to thank everyone for their responses from my earlier posting. It really helped me a lot, and did give me hope.

My question now is, What kind of information should I be getting to know that we are getting the best treatment for my mother. So far this is what I have.

4 Years ago at 48 my mom had a double mastectomy
I believe she had 4 lymph nodes removed. She received chemo and radiation.
-This past December she was diagnosed with mets to the liver and bones. I know that there several spots on the liver. But I do not know the size.
-She received two treatments of Taxotere. But the side effects were too much for her.
-From Taxotere we switched to Taxol. She received 6 or 7 treatments of Taxol over 3 mos. The reason they were so spread out was because again side effects of numbness were too much.
-Our next step was going to be switching to a new Chemo.
-Right as that was about to happen which was last week, she started showing symptoms of having it spread to the brain. Tuesday she is scheduled to have an MRI, although the doctor is pretty certain it has spread.
-The doctor also believes from enzyme counts that the chemo was working.

I like her doctor, and so does my mom, but I want to make sure that I am asking the right questions, and have the information that I need. There is just so much information out there that I dont know what is important.
My mom sacraficed so much raising my brother and sister and I that I want to make sure that I do everything I can to help her.

I here a lot of talk about herceptin, is that something that I should inquire about?

Thanks again for all of your prayers and thoughts, mine are certainly with all of you.

GARY

[Lolly]

Gary,
You are a good son, and your mom is lucky to have you helping her. I'm praying the MRI is not bad news, but please keep us posted one way or another.
If we had some more information about the original diagnosis it would help in offering advice. One thing you could ask for is the pathology report from her initial diagnosis. This will give you crucial information about the primary cancer, and if you post the info then those who have a similar profile can tell you what worked for them.
Herceptin is a drug that most of us who post here are receiving, because our cancers are Her2 positive. It is only effective against this type of cancer, but again, your mom's pathology report should give you that information. If it's not addressed in the report it's possible her tumor wasn't tested for the Her2 factor, however, many hospitals store the samples taken from biopsies, so your mom's doctor could order that test done on her tissue block. You need to know her Her2 factor to know whether she is a candidate for Herceptin.
I hope this is helpful, and please keep us posted.
Hugs, Lolly