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Dear Shannon,
I am only a year and a few months from diagnosis (age 36) and have been doing great. I know that you wanted to hear of long term survivors of HER2 +. My friend, Patti, is an 11 year survivor at age 29 with stage 3b (now she is 41). At the time, they did not have the Her2 neu test but they did test her for ER/PR - which she was negative. They are pretty sure she was HER 2 pos.
She has had no recurrances. Her chemo didn't even include one of the taxanes much less Herceptin. There are MANY long term survivors out there but I think that they tend not to frequent these sites...especially when their cancer diagnosis was over 5 years ago. I did a tax return this year of a two time BC survivor (6 years ago with 7 pos. lymphnodes & ER/PR-). She doesn't even have a computer thus would never post! I asked her what she did to change her life...her answer was as simple as laughing from stupid TV shows, doing what she wanted to do and living it up with her husband. They went on trips that she said they were going to save for when she retired. Those are two gals from my little town in GA.
It sounds as if you had a great regiment of chemotherapy. You may not need additional chemotherapy...and if some small chance you do there are still plenty out there for you to try.
I go to yoga every Monday for BC patients. I am the only one that had 10+/16 lymphnodes and HER2+. I am young and I wish that I had someone also like me but usually I am the one they look at with a "aww" expression. It's OK...I have taken the role that I may have started up with two strikes at bat but I certainly plan on hitting the home run. When I say home run - do I mean living until I'm 90? No, I mean that I am living my life to the fullest now. So that no matter what happens my life was a home run. No regrets, no missed opportunities and no long lengths of time where I think to myself "I wish I had done that, I wish that I said No, I wish that I spent more time doing the things I wanted to."
The truth you asked for is a question that none of us has the answer to. All of us are so completely different. There are people that on paper they should be cured and they die. There are people that should never make it a week, a month and they are here and doing fine. Then there are lots of folks in the middle, like me. I wish that my Dr. could tell me that he can cure me but that would be a lie. He did his part and the rest is really up to me.
Pray for the best. Have faith that your treatment is working for you. And most importantly live, live, live.
Peace, Ruth
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