[TriciaK]

Thank you all so much for your kind thoughts and words! I am not doing too badly, still hanging in and positive. I haven't had navelbine, just herceptin, for two weeks so have actually had more energy, plus am also now on prednisone. (You know what steroids do for wrestlers and athletes!) My white cells are coming back up so my oncologist will probably add navelbine again next week. He insists I need it for the lung mets, but is adjusting the dosage and schedule. I am still having strange side effects from the navelbine, where I had none 5 years ago. I was not too surprised at nausea and vomitting from it, but the strangest has been severe earache and pain, and lots of ringing and strange inner ear sounds. My home health nurse checked and suggested I see an ear specialist right away so I did today. His exam showed that my ears are full of fluid and I need tubes put in to drain them! I think the side effects are annoying me more than the BC! I still feel encouraged because the ca 27/29 marker dropped from 131 in July to 60 in September. The next few months will show if the markers continue to drop and also if I can keep my ejection fraction above 50 so I can continue the herceptin as long as possible.I see the oncologist every week on Tuesday after blood tests on Monday and will see what he suggests about the tubes. I am also looking forward to meeting next week with a guided imagery specialist from home health--As many of you know hypnosis and guided imagery was a specialty of mine in my psychological practice. I saw some amazing results in others, and was able to do self hypnosis in the past, but it is harder now to do self hypnosis and I am looking forward to working with someone. I firmly believe hypnosis and guided imagery has made a big difference in my 25 year old fight with BC. I'll keep in touch---the love and understanding on this site means so much! Hugs, Tricia