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Hi Steph and all.
Actually, I did see Dr. Pegram. I asked him how much time I had. I dont' usually ask that question because obviously no one knows and I take the answers with a grain of salt. This was a couple of years ago when the lung mets were originally found.
He said " Well I know you must have read something so what did it say? " ( I have an unusual kind of lung met called lymphangitic, very aggressive and fast moving ). So I told him I read 8 months. Then he looked at me and said "S0?" So I said I had 2 young children and that wasn't enough time, to which he said " You have already far outlived what anyone would have predicted. You are at the end of the bell shaped curve and you should be saitisfied with that!" I thought my husband was going to deck him.....
He didn't have anything else to offer. I don't fit into the guidelines of the trials and he said avastin would never work on me because I have had so much treatment.
I have spoken with several oncs around the country, all breast oncologists and all highly regarded. Some were very very kind in spending time with me, others were bothered by my questions. But there were no magic pearls.
The real problem is that I no longer fit into any of the trials. ( I have already been on 4 clinical trials in my long career as a cancer patient ). I don't know what more to do.
Tammy Faye Baker is on an angiogenesis inhibitor but I dont' know what kind. I have no idea about Peter Jennings.
I was really thinking about Iscador ( Mistletoe ) but I am sorry to hear that your friend passed away. Was it due to the mistletoe or that it just didn't work?
Thank you all for your thoughtful responses. I think when I fail this last chemo I am on and truly have nothing left, that groveling to the drug companies will be in order. ( although in the 90's I desparately tried to get herceptin because I was at such high risk for recurrence. I groveled for 2 years without success and now I wonder if my life would have been totally different if they had given it to me then. ) I think by now though that I have learned how to grovel better and more forcefully....
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