[Jean]

Gee, I guess I see the glass half full....
I see all the lives that are being safed and all the women that are living longer who are stage 4.
We have made some very impressive strides. You wrote.....

When there has been only one type of therapy applied for decades and it was chosen at a time of desperation with far less knowledge, and it becomes the "standard" of care that everything else has to be tied to and measured against, it is easy to fail to question whether or not that therapy itself -- or any of the support drugs administered in support of that therapy, such as steroids or blood stimulators, or the drugs used to treat side effects -- is actually causing recurrences

I have to ask don't you think that therapy and treatments has changed in very strong leaps in the last decade alone? I lost two friends to this disese - one 26 yrs. ago, she was so young...they remove her breast, no radiaition at that time when the breat was removed the dr. felt he caught it all.and in a short 1.5 she had a recurrence. Then at this time she had chemo. I really believe now that she may have been her2 since it took her so fast. She was only 30 yrs. old. when dx.
So just having surgery and no radiaiton...she still recurred. My other dear friend at least lived another 10 yrs. after her dx. She also had surgery and no radiation.
Her cancer came back in the bones. Back 26 to 30 yrs.
ago, that was stanard of care.

I think as woman are dx. we are put in a extremely difficult situation. Dam if we do and dam if we don't.

Consider young teens who are dx. with Hodgkins disease. Decades ago they were not surviving, today
most are treated and cured...my son had a close friend
who was only 13 when dx. He went through chemo (my son and he attended an all boys school) the boys on his team all shaved their head in support of him. ) This boy now is a young man of 26 doing very well with NED.
I have to believe the chemo saved him. While it broke my heart to see him struggle through the treatments
and he lost an entire year of school....what other choice did his parents have? The same holds for us....we really don't have the time to dwell on the negative...we must be fighters in every shape and form. While none of us on this site want to have chemo - you must make rational decsions on the medical situation we are faced with.

We all on this board must maintain a strong degree of positive thoughts...and fight. If I didn't fight hard I would not have gotten herceptin. If Becky didn't run her legs off and fight for herceptin (and others) she would not have had herceptin. I guess the point I am making is when life give you lemons you make lemonade or pass on the lemonade and look for a sweet wine.

Life hands out unfair issues to people. My husbands
cousin who was only 52 yrs. had a severe headache one day at work, she fell over at her desk and went into a coma, she passed 24 hrs. later never to recover, she had a brain aneurysm. Unfair, no warning, no treatments for her.
Just a fast death.

I have to feel a certain amount of graitude that I at least have been given a fighting chance. I have to feel that many women on this board are also grateful and appreciate that science and the medical profession are doing the research and the best they can.

So many questions, so many decisons, the medical merits of one procedure over another.

There are children starving in third world countries, there are so many ills in the world. There are children
being rob of their right to be children. If we look at the plight of children in India...how they are sold off by family to work it is a crime. Poor countries around the world have had not only medical failings but protecting the healthy children is an issue.

There are many funded organizations trying to help the third world countries. It is a major feat. Cancer is not the only ill in the world to the poor countries.

We can only do our best. I don't mean this in a disrespectfull way, but we have many women on this site fighting for their lives each day, and taking chemo and some even on trial medicaiton. We need to be forward thinking and positve for them. No one has the answers to the all the ills of the world. One can only do a kindness and try to help in their own small way.
For some it is serving food in a homeless shelter, for others it is running miles in support of breast cancer,
everyone does their share in their own private way.

I honestly have never met one lady who was her2 who said she would not have treatment becasue of chemo.
I speak with large groups of women at the hospital and I have never heard that. I still visit the chemo ward and serve lunch and light snacks to the patients getting chemo. I do this because it is my way of paying back by helping others who are feeling frightened and being there knowing I had chemo/herceptin and I am doing well. I only hope it makes another feel stronger. While there may be women who are afraid to have chemo /and/herceptin I honestly have not heard women saying that on the chemo ward.

As I have said I always see the glass half full.
Jean