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StephN · 05-13-2005, 02:56 PM

Hi Shannon -
Nice to see you again and great (!) to hear that your heart is doing better now (I recall your shock and dismay last year when the heart problem surfaced).
I have been fighting now pretty much constantly for almost 5 years now. But I do vividly remember how I was "allotting" a year of my life for the surgery and treatment process for my BC.
Just as I was getting my stamina back to close to normal I was greeted with the news that my liver was seriously involved with tumors. That was a shock. I knew about Herceptin at that point, and so wished I had been able to have it as it could possibly have prevented such a quick metasteses.
In other words, I barely got off treatment and was thrown back to square one. My pathology is the same as yours, and I was warned that the chance of the cancer coming back in some form within five years was rather high.
I have been on tri-weekly herceptin for almost 3 years now and tolerate it very well. It is completely painless, and the only thing I notice is maybe a little flushed later in the same evening of treatment. I have no effect on my hair, skin or nails from the herceptin. Not even the sniffles - my allergies take care of that. I take coenzyme Q10 and this seems to help my heart as there seems to be no side effect of that kind for me. (And remember I have been on it 3.5 years all together.) Just had my 56th birthday, and look forward to many more.
Try to get past the feeling that you would still be in "treatment" as you knew it before. I don't consider Herceptin a chemical in the same was as the chemos - but a life-saving component that has an ability to fight my cancer in a way that my body cannot.

05-13-2005, 02:56 PM	#4
StephN Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Misty woods of WA State Posts: 4,128	Hi Shannon - Nice to see you again and great (!) to hear that your heart is doing better now (I recall your shock and dismay last year when the heart problem surfaced). I have been fighting now pretty much constantly for almost 5 years now. But I do vividly remember how I was "allotting" a year of my life for the surgery and treatment process for my BC. Just as I was getting my stamina back to close to normal I was greeted with the news that my liver was seriously involved with tumors. That was a shock. I knew about Herceptin at that point, and so wished I had been able to have it as it could possibly have prevented such a quick metasteses. In other words, I barely got off treatment and was thrown back to square one. My pathology is the same as yours, and I was warned that the chance of the cancer coming back in some form within five years was rather high. I have been on tri-weekly herceptin for almost 3 years now and tolerate it very well. It is completely painless, and the only thing I notice is maybe a little flushed later in the same evening of treatment. I have no effect on my hair, skin or nails from the herceptin. Not even the sniffles - my allergies take care of that. I take coenzyme Q10 and this seems to help my heart as there seems to be no side effect of that kind for me. (And remember I have been on it 3.5 years all together.) Just had my 56th birthday, and look forward to many more. Try to get past the feeling that you would still be in "treatment" as you knew it before. I don't consider Herceptin a chemical in the same was as the chemos - but a life-saving component that has an ability to fight my cancer in a way that my body cannot.