New here

[Elisabeth from Ontario]

Greetings Ladies, I was informed of this site by Chandi- thankyou!
My story: AT age 39: Oct/01 Left modified radical, right simple (by choice), 16/17 nodes pos, ER/PR weakly pos, her2 pos, tiny tumour also found in right breast (thank the Lord for giving me the notion to have bilat mastectomy). 6 mos of CEF, 5 weeks rads, tamoxifen. Dec/02 liver mets- herceptin until Sept03- added navelbine for increase in liver mets- turfed it after 3 rounds for poor QOL. Took a break to go to Florida with my family. My sister was diagnosed with a seriously aggressive brain tumour and had surgery just after we got home so I took Christmas off to cope with my sisters diagnosis. CT in Jan04- lung mets now an issue- they were in the background for a number of months but I was asymptomatic so we didn't worry about it. Started weekly taxotere/herceptin.
I have had 2 cycles of this with marked improvement on my chest xray in just 2 doses- Praise God! The 3rd leg of my last cycle was deferred because of 6 mouth sores- OUCH and my neuts were right at cut off point. So I Just had herceptin on friday and again next friday.
My oncologist is the best!!! Most visits I am greeted with a hug- that's the best part of my treatment day! He has worked with me to acheive my goals and basically I am in the drivers seat and he gives me direction.
I also participate in WebMD message board for BCmets. There is also another interesting place and that is bcmets.org there is a breast cancer advocate- Musa Mayer who has had BC herself (no mets) but is VERY knowledgeable. I have heard her speak at a 'LIfe after BC" conference in Hamilton ON, she has also published 2 books. Great reading and very informative.
My key to my survival: my relationship with my Heavenly Father, most days it is His footprints in the sand that I see. My Hope lies with my God rather than the hands of man.
Blessings to all of you this day!
Elisabeth

[Anonymous]

Welcome and thanks for the ideas for other sites to gather info. Hope you will find some help and comfort here, as you are deep into a major fight. Taxotere was pretty hard on me - but the Herceptin has been my Godsend, keeping me NED.
With your spirit you will get past all this!

[chandi]

Hi Eilisa ,
Good to seee your post here, I am sure you will find lot of informations and encouragements here too, please keep posting of your recovery progress.

Hugs

Chandi

[Anonymous]

Marci =
I had very bad flu-like symptoms about the 3rd day after treatment. Felt like I had been run over by a truck or something. Could hardly get out of bed. I knew it was not flu as I did not have much fever and other symptoms like sore throat. Just the horrible body aches and fatigue as blood counts went down. Also has some mouth sores, but I found the eating ice during my treatment helped those be less awful.
I had the 3-week dose a total of 4 times. The last dose had to be cut as I was just TOO flattened by the regular dose. Maybe one reason mets appeared so quickly?
Those were the main problems.

[marcy]

In what ways was taxotere hard on you?

[Elisabeth from Ontario]

Hi there, thanks for the welcome. If you are on decadron(dexamethasone) with your taxotere, that is where the flu like symptoms come from - a withdrawal side effect from the dex- I get it too. One of my best friends is an oncologist and she told me that. I get awful mouth sores, so I will try ice next time.

[Elisabeth from Ontario]

I forgot something- the muscle aches come from the taxotere

[Anonymous]

This is why I do not take the steriods with the chemo. I don't like being sick the third day with flu like symtoms. I figure with all the other pre meds I don't need the steriods. That is only my choice and I am comfortable doing it. Blessings.