Hello, my name is Joanne, but people call me Jo or JoJo, whichever they prefer, I don't care. I live in California.
My story below:
Diagnosis = May '03, stage 3b (probably 3c in the current guidelines) at age 35, 6cm primary tumor, 17/18+ nodes (just one largest at 1.5cm, the rest all micromets), 40% ER+ / 20% PR+, her2+, grade 3.
Active treatment = neo-adjuvant: AC 4x dose-dence, Taxol 12x weekly, in conjunction of weekly Herceptin (originally intended for one year only).
Surgery = Mastectomy Nov '03; primary tumor completely disappeared; reconstruction delayed, haven't done it yet.
Radiation therapy = Dec '03 thru Jan '04 for 23 treatments (or was it 27?).
Another diagnosis = Recurrence June '04: supra nodes and then just one brain met in July '04, 1st Gamma Knife Aug '04 for brain met.
On Herceptin indefinitely, due to stage 4 status.
Hormonal therapy = Femara in daily pill (recurred), Faslodex by monthly injection (stable for a few months), and now Aromasin in daily pill (stable for now).
My personal note = been stage 4 for almost a year now, actually I don't feel like being stage 4, with just one brain met & supra node. Had the occasional CT scan, always clear in other organs.
BTW, at recurrence diagnosis, I took tumor markers for the first time, my numbers showed in the normal range, so my onc ditched TM's in my case. Maybe I'll ask her in the near future to run them again...
Nice to "meet" you all, although I wish under better circumstances. Oh, here is my email address, if any of you would like to ask me questions or shoot your comments anytime:
acrobaticfan@yahoo.com