[Kathy S in Tokyo]

Gin-tx and Andi,

Thanks for the comments. When I learned that I could have Herceptin I did the math after seeing Andi's history in her signature and was greatly encouraged. Gin-tx, I'm glad that you don't have neoropathy. Is your back pain from bone mets? I had this year's bone scan last Friday and will get results tomorrow at my pre-treatment visit with my onco. It's a little hard to type with my fingers crossed :-).

Every time anything ever hurts I jump to cancer or drug side effect conclusions when lots of stuff is probably from getting older (the goal of the treatments) and overdoing things (playing softball with the PTA or jumping on a trampoline at a park with the kids). I guess I should act my age a little more or work out more often so it isn't such a shock to the system when I do excercise.

I think my oncologist just wanted to make sure that I was really aware that some patients have reactions the first time as I was fairly laid back at the appointment when he may have expected me to be more tense about starting a new drug. I'd heard from members here and on another site about what to expect and hadn't been sitting at the edge of my seat during the appointment. I had no infusion reaction that day and have been on weekly Herceptin since March now. Dryness wasn't so noticeable in the humid summer months but now that it's cooler and more dry, I broke out the Vaseline intensive care healing skin lotion this week and do notice a big difference when I use it after bathtime.

I'm more fatigued after the lengthy Herceptin and Taxol dual treatment days than I am after the Herceptin only days. Some of the fatigue I have may be from the train commute through Tokyo and back once a week as I tend to stay around home and only go where I can cycle or walk. I'm sure that the weekly Taxol which was added to the treatments in June is a big cause of the fatigue too. I have 7 more treatments to go until I reach the magic number 20 and will return to Herceptin only in my maintenance mode. Some of the lung mets are still there, but most of them have disappeared completely thanks to the Taxol. I'm very glad that I haven't had any signs of ejection fraction decrease and that I can remain on the big H for a long time.

Having a weekly (or more if I can't get various tests scheduled on treatment days) expedition downtown has made this year fly by very fast. It seems like I just had a CT scan and it's already time for another. On the Herceptin, the results showed that the cancer was still there but in check. On the Taxol, the results have shown much shrinkage. Once I'm back on Herceptin only, I'm counting on it to keep the reduced mets in check.

Best,