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Dear Yvonne, Let me add my welcome to all the rest. You are in the right place! The women on this site are all fighters, and their stories are remarkable. You can look back over several years entries, and be inspired and encouraged. I have been fighting breast cancer for 20 years, and I don't intend to give up fighting. I don't know if my first two rounds in 1985 and 1990 were her2 (I doubt it), but my last mets to the lungs were discovered in July, 2004, and were her2. As you may read elsewhere in my posts, I had a heart attack in June '04 and when the drs did a CT scan in preparation for heart surgery, which was never done, the lung mets were discovered. My oncologist said if they hadn't discovered the mets when they did I would have had about 3 months to live. He put me on navelbine, herceptin, and femara for 6 months, and then dropped the navelbine, and I will continue on herceptin and femara indefinitely. Even though I had had a heart attack I didn't hesitate to try herceptin, and I believe it is a miracle infusion. My MUGA scan in May showed my heart at 58%, normal. I will have a check up at least every 3 months, and am scheduled for an echocardiogram in a week. I have herceptin with zometa every 3 weeks. My last PET scan in August showed No Evidence of Metastatic Cancer!!! My oncologist said when we started the chemo that I might have 6 months, then later he said a year. After we saw the PET scan he said "It looks like you've dodged the bullet one more time". I told him to think more like a minimum of 5 years. Since I am 75 now, I think at least 5 years is likely and I'm going to keep fighting for more ! No one can tell you for sure how long you have! All they can do is quote general statistics. This is a new ball game for BC because of herceptin, and herceptin may do for BC what insulin does for diabetes, make it a chronic treatable disease controlled by herceptin, diet changes, and a lot of faith and determination. I've said it before: faith and fear cannot co-exist! Do all you can to overcome the fear! This site will help, and we are all here for you. Hugs, Tricia
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