[hopeful200]

Just wanted to share my feelings with you courageous ladies. Mom was diag April 2004 with stage IV, mets to lungs. Very aggressive cancer - had brain mets 1 year later, got WBR, had bone mets, developed skin mets last year, then liver mets. She had been on several chemo regimen, responded to each for a few months, then progressed. Her last 3 regimen she did not respond to, and I think that's when her cancer spread rapidly. She passed away 1 week ago with liver failure, and recurrence of brain mets. I have been looking at this message board and all the ladies doing well on the herceptin-dm1 trial, and I feel so angry at myself that I was not keeping up on the latest research. Had I known about this trial 5 or 6 mos ago, I would have pushed for my mom to get in, and maybe she would still be alive today.

I hope others out there can learn from my mistakes. Please, keep on top of your medical treatments. Do not depend on your oncologist to know all the latest treatments and trials specific to your type of cancer. Maybe if I had taken my mom to a major cancer center, they would have been more aggressive in trying different treatments, "out of the box". I did try to get her into Sloan Kettering early on in her illness, but they did not take her insurance. But, I'm sure if I had really tried, I could have found a way around that.

I am a physician, and because of that I feel that my mom put her trust in me to get her the best treatment, and I feel that I let her down. I will carry this with me for the rest of my life.

Good luck to all you brave ladies. I am rooting for all the new trials, and hope that better, more effective treatments are around the corner.

Thanks for allowing me to share.

A grieving daughter.