[Joanne S]

Hi Alice, I still get fevers. The usually remain under 102. The night before yesterday, I felt a fever come on. I took my temp and it was 101.6. I take Motrin like it's candy. I fell asleep and luckily when I woke up in the morning the fever was gone. Still no one knows why I have these fevers of unknown origin. Perhaps it is a side effect of the Herceptin or else there is some persistent infection somewhere. My reconstruction surgeon said she always likes to have the expanders in and fully expanded before the radiation. She advised she will not expand me after radiation, due to the contracting and impacts on tissue caused by the radiation. I had my echocardiogram yesterday to check my ejection fraction. If it is within normal limits I will be able to get my Herceptin in about 10 days. If it is not, I will have to put Herceptin on hold again. It happened once before and I ended up missing one treatment. I noticed that many women receive Herceptin treatment for one year. Some women I know that are Stage IV have been on Herceptin for years. My Herceptin treatment was started after AC, with Taxol in December 06. I had four dose dense treatments of Taxol over 8 weeks along with the Herceptin and have been on Herceptin once every three weeks since then. I also take tamoxifen daily. I take Motrin daily for breast pain. Thanks for asking. Best to you.