[swimangel72]

Thank you for your prayers Cindy - hope your Herceptin tx's are going well. My last muga score dropped by only 4 percentage points from a 67% to a 63% for which I'm relieved!

Suzan I'm glad you were able to get Herceptin - I'm also on Arimidex. Do they think your osteoporosis was caused by the Arimidex? My onc told me it's a real issue - so I'm trying to increase my calcium.

Abby I love your dog - is she a collie? We're a cat family - I'd love to have had a dog, but felt it wouldn't be fair to leave her alone all day while I'm at work. How much longer do you need to take Arimidex? Oh and does it bother your fingernails? My fingernails are so soft - and peeling so low, the tips of my fingers look chewed up. I'm not sure if it's caused by the Arimidex or the Herceptin.

Lani thanks so much for your thoughtful and informative response........yes, my interest is in women who are not only Stage 1 but Grade 1 as well. My tumor has already been sent out for pathology twice - to two different labs - once by the radiologist who did the biopsy and the second time by my breast cancer surgeon who's follows a policy of re-testing a tumor before surgery. Both times it showed "well differentiated" which means Grade 1. Then it was tested with FISH twice at two different labs and came up Her2++++. My original onc immediately knew he'd put me on Herceptin - because even though I had the mastectomy - he wanted to be extra-aggressive, like me.

Lani - the size of my tumor was always a bit in question - the radiologist originally said the "nodule" was about 7mm based on what she saw in the mammo and sonogram. No where in the path report of the biopsy did they say what size the tumor was. They said how large the SAMPLES of tissue were. After my mastectomy, the path report said the area was 1.7 cm - but that was including the area of normal tissue that was removed with the tumor during biopsy. Another report said it was .9 cm, with an asterick indicating that it might be smaller - so my onc went with that size. I'm assuming since the size was at least 7mm and no greater than .9 cm that's why the tumor was a Stage 1.

I tried researching Navelbine with Herceptin online, but only found patients who had mets to the liver receiving this treatment. I had switched onc's early on in my treatment to be closer to home, and my new onc agreed that this tx would be OK. Also a friend's sister is the head onc at a major hospital in California - and she emailed me that this tx might be unusual but oncology is part art as well as science and I should be fine. I got the same response from an oncologist online.........STILL I worry that I went through all this chemo (with the infected port that we couldn't use, and painful, burning veins in my arm) and that I'll get a recurrence. I never complained to my original onc about a fear of losing my hair - but he decided that Herceptin works well with ANY chemo - and he said Navelbine wouldn't cause me much hair loss or any heart problems. So while I'm grateful for not having had to suffer those side-effects, my level of anxiety is higher than it probably should be, which is why I'm so grateful for this message board!