[bejuce]

Hi Deb,

Sorry to hear that. As you can see from my signature, I too had lots of nodes after chemo. I participated in a neo-adjuvant clinical trial at Stanford and in the end all I had at my mastectomy were residual cells at 11 nodes. The pathology report estimated that 95-98% of the original tumor in the nodes was gone with chemo, and all that was left was small foci of cells (no tumor was found in the breast). I remember talking to my surgeon about it the time, how come the huge tumor in the breast went away but not the nodes? He couldn't come up with an explanation, except to say that sometimes that happens and that the nodes can he harder to reach. One doctor I saw in Orange County last year (Dr. Link) told me that he thinks my prognosis is much better than what the number of nodes would indicate, given the treatment I got and how well I responded to it. So try not to dwell on the number so much.

I had my moments of panic when I found out, but immediately went into attack mode and got my team to give me Xeloda (albeit at a low dose) during my course of radiation. I'm about to celebrate my 2 years from surgery (2 1/2 from diagnosis) in a couple of weeks and I'm fine so far. I plan to be fine for a long, long time.

Given your attitude, smile, and fabulousness, I'm confident you'll be too. We're all here for you if you need support.

Love,

Marcia