A Visit with Dr. Pegram

[Barbara2]

Sorry it took me so long to get this done, but now I'm glad I spent the time transferring our discussion (in Dr. Pegram's office) from the little digital recorder to paper. Thanks to the person who suggested taking a recorder along. What a great idea. Had I not done that, a lot of information would have been lost.

http://www.her2support.org/barbara.htm (http://www.her2support.org/barbara.htm)

[Mary Anne in TX]

Barbara, I know that it took time to do this for all of us. Thank you for making your precious time with the doctor available to us. What a wonderful gift! ma

[Liz J.]

Barbara,

Thank you so much for taking the time to share this with us. It was very informative and matter of fact. Much appreciated.

Sincerely,

Liz J.

[Erin]

Wonderful! Your are right, the tape recorder was a brilliant idea. Thanks!

[Bev]

Thanks Barbara and Dr. Pegram. Great questions from The Her2 gang. The answers give me hope. BB

[Connie Jean]

Thank you so much for typing this up and sharing! It was so helpful. I, too, saw Dr. Peagram and he very kindly consulted with my oncologist about my treatment.
I'm NED two years from diagnosis of stage IIIc BC. My oncologist says my chances of long term survival go way up when I pass this anniversary. I have all my scans in May to make sure I'm still NED. I'm praying for good results.
Thank you all in this group. You have been so encouraging and knowledgable and helpful to me through this incredible journey.

[Linda]

Dear Barbara:
Thank you so much for taking the time to relate all this information to all of us. Your visit with Dr. Pegram was really informative and full of helpful (and reassuring) information for me, and I'm sure for lots of others.
THANK YOU
Linda

[Becky]

Barbara


What a wonderful thing you did for all of us. I know how much time this must have taken you. Thank you so much.

[Joy]

I got as many "smart bumps" (my phrase for being impressed by smart people) from your questions as Dr. Pegrams answers. What an amazing job you did of putting together great questions, making the appointment, getting there, asking the great questions and recording the great answers two times. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. And it sounds like you can begin to get on with life, huh?! THAT is the best part. I'm very happy for you!

[lexigirl]

Barbara,

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your visit with us. It was very informative.

Lexi

[chrisy]

Wow! Thanks for sharing this!

[Jean]

Dear Barbara,
You have given all on the site on a true gift...many heart felt thanks.
I am so glad that you followed your instincts and went for the second
opinion. I knew you would gain great information which would address
your concerns.

God Bless you for a job "Well Done"

Jean

[KellyA]

Barbara,


This was such a wonderful start to my Sunday morning. So many questions I have wanted to ask were answered. I am going to copy this and keep it with me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all of the time and effort that you put into this.

Love, Kelly

[Mary Jo]

Hello Barbara,

Wow..........I can't thank you enough for sharing all this wonderful information with us all. I sat at the computer this morning, with my coffee, and read it all to my husband.

Hugs to you and once again, thank you.

Mary Jo

[saleboat]

Thank you! That was a very kind thing of you to do. I'm sure that visit brought you tremendous peace of mind.

Jen

[JEANB]

Barbara,

EXCELLENT! Great job putting this together..so easy to read and informative. Thanks for doing that!

JeanB

[nancy d]

I am recently diagnosed, in the middle of chemo and wondering if I can take much more. Your article is one of the nicest things that I have read recently. Thanks Nancy

[Andi]

Great job Barbara, thanks for doing this for all of us.

[Lolly]

Thanks from me also, very interesting and VERY encouraging!

<3 Lolly

[lkc Gumby]

Hi Barbara,

Thank you for posting and doing such a great job in asking Dr P such relevant questions.
It's wonderful, to cut through all that speculation that out there and really hear some clear concise accurate info!
God Bless you.

Linda

[Margerie]

Barbara,

Bravo! You and Dr. P sure make a great team. Thanks for thinking of all of us and posting his comments.

[LAURIE]

Wow, Barbara , amazing. thank you so much. Your (and our) questions helped reconfirm a lot of things for me.

[Karen Weixel]

Barbara,

Thank you very much. This information has been very helpful.

Karen

[Hopeful]

Barbara,

Thank you so very much for all of the time and effort you put into this, and for sharing it with all of us.

Hopeful

[harrie]

Barbara, thank you for taking the time to write up your consultation. I am sure the information you obtained will help many of us so I am very appreciative to you for sharing it with us. My consultation with Dr. Pegram was the last step in my final decision to do chemo and I don't think I could have found a better person to consult. I found him much more personable and easier to talk then what I had expected. Did he do the online recurrence score evaluation on you like he did on me?

Harrie (maryanne)

[Julie2]

Barbara,

Thank you very much for a wonderful job you did. They are very helpful.

Julie

[Christine MH-UK]

It confirmed my suspicion that the HERA 1 and 2 year arms probably weren't statistically that different (and updated my knowledge: if anybody asks about the 2 year arm, I can tell them that the announcement date is pushed all the way back to 2009).

I am thrilled to bits that they are looking very prudently at shorter herceptin courses.

Thank you again,

Christine MH

[Rupali]

Thanks a ton Barbara. It was great.

[Grace]

Barbara,

Thank you. I've been fixated on my tumor markers (which just make it into normal range) despite reassurances by my oncologist, so it was wonderful to hear the same things again, and also about scans. So, thank you many times over.

[mslinda]

Thanks so much Barbara for doing this. You have provided many answers for me, and now I should stop being concerned about what the future holds for me.

Thank you again for all the work you put into this.

Linda
S. Mississippi

[Diane H]

Thank you, great information. Hugs, Diane

[caya]

Thanks Barbara for sharing this information. This really gives me much hope for remaining NED, as my own oncologist and I discussed many of these same issues with similiar responses from Dr. Pegram.

All the best
Caya

[Soccermom]

Many thanks from me as well,Barbara ! Thanks also for taking the time and energy to post the consult.
Marcia

[harrie]

Barbara, just got done reading your consultation. EXCELLENT job!!! Your questions were great and the information gathered so valuable. Thank you for taking the time to write it all up for us to benefit from.

Harrie

[Shell]

Barbara-

Thank you, thank you! How nice to get this updated info - oftentimes I read the summary of a topic, and wonder if the results hold up over time - you, and Dr. Pegram, answered some of those questions for me.

Regards,

[RhondaH]

Thank you SO much. This brought a smile to my face. BIG Huggs

Rhonda

[suzan w]

Ditto to everything that everyone else has said!!! I feel like I was along with you for your visit and it has given me great Peace Of Mind!!! And peace of mind is what it is all about! Thank you so much!!!

[Debra]

Barbara -

You don't know how optimistic you made me feel tonight! Thank you for taking care of all of us! Bless your for sharing this with us and speaking for all of us!

[SusieQ]

Wow! Outstanding information! Thank you so much!

[SoCalGal]

Barbara,
Thank you so much for transcribing your consultation. You answered so many questions that I always obsess over. I think his last statement is the most important for you - try to breathe out, and just live your life as if you will live to be 100+. You deserve that!
Flori

[fullofbeans]

Thanks for all the effort you went th', I think it is very kind, what a good idea. I also like the fact that he is in such agreement about the importance of diet (often not very recognised by Dr.).

But not sure I agree with his response on lack of results for Her2 vaccination! Although I agree past results have been very poor but perseverance is the name of the game.. I personally think that it is the future of cancer treatment, immunological response is a beginning..ability to target is being improved and tunned, Her2 cancer have a slight head start..(at least this is what I beleive)

Take care ands thanks again
Karina

[Chelee]

Barbara, You went above and beyond the call of duty. lol :) Thank you so MUCH for going to all the trouble of putting together that webpage for all of us to read. That took some time and I so appreciate it. Very well done! You asked some great questions...and you asked the one I wanted to know about. Which was continuing on herceptin pass a year. He addressed that in your conversation. You managed to cover alot of ground with him.

Thanks a million...that was so nice of you to do for all of us.

Chelee

[Emelie]

Thank you so much Barbara for taking the time to post this for the Her2 ladies club. I sent it on to both of my daughters who are away at college to help reassure them that I have done, and will continue to do, everything I can to be around for them. One daughter is in Prague doing a study abroad, so she and I rely on the internet and weekly phone calls to catch up. She really appreciated hearing from a doctor that her mom has a great chance to be here when she graduates.
Thank you again,
Emelie

[Barbara2]

Thank you to all for your kind comments. I have gotten so much from this support group, and this was an opportunitiy to give something back. We all are here to learn and offer support to each other. Every time a post is made, it helps someone in someway.

When I was diagnosed in Oct of 02 our only child/son was a senior in high school. (I was teaching, but after surgery I never returned to the classroom.) By graduation day, chemo was behind me, but I was struggling terribly with chemo brain. Just being able to attend the graduation, though, was a huge blessing.

I later told my son, that my next goal would be to see him graduate from college. (With Her2+ breast cancer, I really wondered...) In one week, that's where I will be, once again counting my blessings. After that he plans to attend school for three more years... and I'll be setting goals.

[darra]

Thank you,Thank you, Thank you.........
I am speechless, what a gift you have given
Darra

[tousled1]

Barbara,

Thank you so much for sharing your consult information with the group. I know that some of the questions you asked really managed to put my mind at ease. You did a wonderful thing and thank you very much.

[momdeeco]

Barbara,
A great big thanks and huge hug from me to you!!! It was so imformative and reassuring! It's gonna be a great day!!

[Susan McQ]

Thanks for posting. It was very informative.


Susan

[Kim in CA]

Dear Barbara,

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You!

Kim in CA

[G. Ann]

Hi Barbara,

Thank you so much for sharing your appt with us. It was very informative & encouraging, and will help me put things in proper perspective.

I especially liked Dr. Pegram's personal message to you, and as a result of your generosity, a message for all of us. Dr. Pegram: "You can sleep at night that you've done everything you could possibly do. And after you do everything, then you can stop worrying because at this point it's not going to be up for you to decide. Either you're going to be cured or not...prepare for both...But you have to be prepared for the fact that you might be disease free forever. You know, that's a good possibility."

WOW! It's just what I needed to hear!!

[Christine]

I had a nice chat with Dr. Pegram at the San Antonio BC Symposium and mentioned Barbara's post of her meeting with him. A smile came to his face as he remembered it quite well. I thought that I would rerun this post as it was one of the most viewed on our website and is extremely interesting and informative.

Regards
Christine and Joe

[goops]

Thanks for taking the time to write all that down - it is very interesting as well as encouraging.

[Joan M]

Barbara, Very awesome! I'm impressed with how organized you were. Thanks for taking the effort to transcript your meeting with Dr. Pegram. Joan

[mimiflower07]

dearest barbra
what can i say to you that you have not already heared from these great friends. So from a newbie this was a true gift to me. I often feel stuck......downweighted.(in the not knowing)..i will be starting herceptin Tues, and your wonderful information has lifted my spirit. This was just what many of us need to hear. Validation!!!
thank you for extending this to all of us
suzanne

[Mgarr]

Everyone else has said but again A GREAT BIG THANK YOU :)

[Cathya]

Barbara;

Thank you so much for putting this together for us. It answered many questions I had and I will bookmark it for re-reading. I know this sort of thing takes a lot of effort and I do really appreciate your time.

Cathy

[basset girl]

Thank you Barbara for your post. So many of the questions were ones I had been wondering about. It was so nice of you to share. Nancy