[TriciaK]

I was on navelbine and herceptin for 5 months, then on herceptin alone for 10 more months, in 2004 and 2005. I had no side effects that were that bad: no nausea, little weakness, hair difficult to manage but no loss, lost eyelashes and eyebrows, though. (Eyebrows have never grown back!) So when the her2 BC showed up again early this past summer, my oncologist put me on the same treatment. This time I had some bad reactions to the navelbine: Terrible roaring and pain in my ears (so bad I could hear my heart pounding and became almost deaf), nausea and vomitting, weakness, dizziness and fatigue and just feeling awful. I understand that these are not very common. In fact only one other person on this website mentioned the same side effects. My doctor did not want to stop the navelbine because the ca-27/29 tumor marker test showed the markers dropping, but decided to use just the herceptin to see if we could get by with that. Now the markers have started to rise again so we are now planning to start herceptin with a chemo, maybe gemzar instead of navelbine, after Christmas. I have heart problems and after the 15 months on the herceptin 5 years ago herceptin was stopped because my ejection fraction dropped to 30. There was some concern using it this time, but my ef is staying around 50 I can continue the herceptin as long as doesn't drop below that. I would say the navelbine should work great for you, as it did for me 5 years ago. Normally the side effects are mild. I only hope gemzar works for me now as well as navelbine did then. Good luck! TriciaK