Scared Stiff!!

[Marie G]

Morning Friends!! Last day of Taxotere for my stage IV HER+ husband and I am so afraid. Does stopping the chemo drug when the CA27/29 is at 51 a number anyone else have? I know the 'normal' # is 38, I also know women with numbers at 900!! Could you girls give me your #'s when you stopped chemo?? ALSO, I will be writing responses to all the wonderful friends who have helped me thus far, thanks for the letters. I am so behind with everything, my taxes are being done on 4/13!! Again, I am so happy to be here, not only do you girls help my husband, but all of the caregivers. Again, the love, respect and knowledge I recieve here will help me to help ME w/awareness! >>>Marie G

[chrisy]

Hi Marie,
Your fears are understandable, of course. We see the chemo as a lifeline and when someone says were "done", it's scary!

Have you asked his oncologist this question?

I don't really know how your husband's stage iv disease was diagnosed - was it through markers or with scans? Do you know that markers are "reliable" for your husband? Have you seen a downward trend?

I ask this because although for some people markers are helpful, for others they are not. I am one for whom markers are not reliable, so my oncs do not use them AT ALL. Sometimes I insist, and they laugh at me then do it after making me promise I won't freak if one is high.

Since my oncs did not use markers, I don't know if my experience will be helpful to you or not. My experience was I had 6 cycles of T/C/H with scans every couple months to see what was going on. When I was "done" with these 6 cycles, the scan still showed residual "tumor", which was scary to me, however my onc thought that might be necrosis (dead tumor) which would resolve on it's own. This was the case and my next scan was clean.

More chemo is not necessarily better - your husband needs to recharge his body's resources.

My suggestion, you've asked the "experts" here, make sure to ask the "expert" who's telling you treatment is done.

Marie, I can also relate to the lack of focus on mundane things like taxes - I didn't balance my checkbook for months during my treatment! Good thing you have until the 17th to file those nasty taxes this year!

Take care
Chris

[Grace]

Marie,

Don't know if this helps, but I had a very small cancer (5mm, no nodes, etc.--see profile) and was not even preparing to have chemo. I started herceptin alone but they took some blood and ran 27-29 and HER2 serum. Results came back, first at 41, then at 41+, and three months later at 45. I stopped chemo at end of two rounds as I was very sick. However, my 27-29 was done about two months ago, again, and it was 37+, so it has come down. Also HER2 serum was 16 (anything above 14 is out of range) and the last one was 11+ (now in range), so 51 does not seem that high and as you continue on herceptin (I'm assuming you will) you may see them come down further. I should also mention that my 27-29, taken after the two round of chemo, went up, not down. I hate those tumor markers, don't you. Yet, I suppose they are helpful to prevent recurrence. If you've been reading Lani's recent posts, there are also other treatments that may be available in the near future. So please try not to worry, although I certainly know how difficult that is to do.