[caya]

Just chiming in with my two cents worth -

I tend to agree with Debbie and Hopeful ... early stagers today are in a different category because we are getting Herceptin as a standard part of our treatment. I had this discussion with my onc. and will revisit it again - I specifically asked him about brain mets - he said it is rare for the mets from HEr2 to go to the brain first - and then he said - there are so many false positives from PEt/CT scans, MRIs etc. (without symptoms) - he said if we found "something", again, with no symptoms - we would have to do something, like brain surgery etc. He also reinforced the fact that I am early stage with great treatment options and he doesn't want me to constantly worry and get anxious about possible mets - He refered to the trials recently released that had such promising results for early stagers, and told me that I have a better prognosis now. This onc. is one of the tops in Canada, possibly even North America, so I feel I can trust his expertise.
I agree with the "2 week" rule here - if you have an ache that lasts more than 2 weeks, have it checked out and rule out mets... brain symptoms would not wait 2 weeks obviously...
Stage IV women are in a totally different position, and in their case I feel it is prudent to have scans, tumor markers etc.
Thanks marejo for relating that after all your experience if you had to do it again, you would not have scans etc. without symptoms - I will really take your opinion to heart and will remember this in the future.

Caya