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Old 11-07-2007, 11:42 AM   #6
Andrea Barnett Budin
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Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: LAND OF YES! w/home in Boca Raton, Florida Orig from L.I., N.Y. Ever hovering IN THE NOW...
Posts: 1,904
Wink A Voice From The Shadows...

Okay Lani, I respect your need to live in camouflage. But please don't shy away from humor. It is very healing. And brings such joy to others!

I chose to pose my long held question to you when you were in a good mood, hoping for the best opportunity to make contact w/the real you.

Please keep on posting. Keep on arming us. And keep on laughing w/us. When you are ready, please take your disguise off (as per your incognito comment).

The more we learn abut one another, the closer w/all feel. Surely many of us have revealed intimate details of not only our medical history but private feelings and the scars that came both w/them and because of our experience. We each learn much from one anothers sharing. We grow. We feel validated. We feel supported. And armed in different and empowering ways... We are a family, I feel. I have genuine affection for those who join me on this board.

With all due respect and an ongoing desire to know the source of the accumulation of so much medical awareness...

Like Flori, we each have our vision of what Lani looks like and hold a fantasy of what Lani is all about ... You know me -- I'm all out there, open, honest and reaching out...
Andi


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Andi BB
'95 post-meno dx Invasive LOBULAR w/9cm tumor! YIKES + 2/21 nodes. Clear mammo 10 mnths earlier. Mastec/tram flap reconst/PORT/8 mnths chemo (4Adria/8CMF). Borderline ER/PR. Tamoxifen 2 yrs. Felt BLESSED. I could walk and talk, feed and bathe myself! I KNEW I would survive...

'98 -- multiple mets to liver. HER2+ 80%. ER/PR- Raging, highly aggressive tumors spreading fast. New PORT. 9 mnths Taxotere Fought fire w/fire! Pronounced in cautious remission 5/99. Taxotere weekly for 6 wks, 2 wks off -- for 9 mnths. TALK ABOUT GRUELING! (I believe they've altered that protocol since those days -- sure hope so!!)
+ good old Vit H wkly for 1st 3 yrs, then triple dosage ev 3 wks for 7 yrs more... The "easy" chemo, right?! Not a walk in the park, but not a freight train coming at 'ya either...

Added Herceptin Nov '98 (6 wks after FDA fast-tracked it for met bc). Stayed w/Vit H till July '08! Now I AM FREE! Humbly and eternally grateful for this life-saving drug! NED since '99 and planning on keeping it that way. To hell w/poor prognosis and nasty stats! STOPPED VIT H JULY '08...! REMAIN STABLE... Eternally grateful...Yes is a world & in this world of yes live (skillfully curled) all worlds ... (e e cummings) EVERY DAY I BEAT MY PREVIOUS RECORD FOR # OF CONSECUTIVE DAYS I'VE STAYED ALIVE. Smile KNOWING you too can be a miracle. Up to me and God now...
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