Recent Echo
 

Hello All,

I recently had my 4th chemo treatment and am so far doing pretty good. God willing I have 2 more to go. :-) I think I finally have a pretty good handle on my meds and what to do for each side effect. The worst this time around is the fatigue. That has been tough.

Any how, last week I had an echo as my doc says its important to watch the heart while on Herceptin. Today I saw her for my weekly Herceptin and she said that the over all echo was good and the function is perfect BUT there is a little fluid around the heart. As everything usually does it sort of freaked me out. She, on the other hand, was not very worried about it and said its not uncommon for a little fluid build up during chemo. She does want to keep an eye on it and has me scheduled for another echo at the beginning of the new year. She is a very thorough doctor and anytime I have a concern she runs every test there is to make sure there is nothing to worry about and to ease my mind. So I know if she was very concerned about this she would have run test right away. She listens to my heart every time and it sounds strong. All of my counts are great except for a little Anemia but other wise all my counts are really good.

So here is my question, has anyone else had this issue or heard of this issue? Did it go away on its own or is it something that could potentially delay treatment or cause issues?

Any words of advice is greatly appreciated.

Re: Recent Echo
 

I do know that this is one of those things that is often "an incidental finding" - like if you just scanned a bunch of healthy people, some of them would have some fluid around the heart. So it probably is not a big deal.

If you have any feelings of chest pain or difficulty breathing (which would mean there was more than a little fluid), I would call right away, otherwise, wait for the next echo.

Re: Recent Echo
 

Hi again Lovemyboys3,

Yes, your doctor is right. I don't think you need worry about the small amount of fluid. I'm glad to hear your chemo is generally going well. The fatigue can tend to build up as you go on but will reduce once the hard chemo part is done. Take good care of yourself.

Aussie Girl