HER2 Support Group Forums - View Single Post - Update on chrisy

Kim in CA · 05-04-2011, 05:38 PM

Hi Chrisy,

This is the pitts that you're having to contemplate "what to do next" . Just wanted to chime in to say that the liver resection, as much as I didn't want to do it, was not as bad as I thought.

I too saw Dr. Hope for a second opinion, when I was trying to decide what to do about the spot on my liver. I asked about RFA and she referred me to Dr. Warren at UCSF. After reviewing my scans, he told me that unfortunately I wasn't a candidate for RFA because my tumor was too close to the main blood vessel (can't think of the name now) in my liver. So, resection was my only other option. I think I was in the hospital about a week, and only had to take pain meds a couple of days after I got home. That was in Nov. of 2002, and I was back to riding my beloved horse in no time at all.

Nobody likes to go under the knife, but if you decide to go that route, I can highly reccomend Dr. Warren. He is a highly skilled surgeon with a great personality to boot!

All my best,
Kim

05-04-2011, 05:38 PM	#7
Kim in CA Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: California's Gold Country Posts: 404	Re: Update on chrisy - where's NED???? Hi Chrisy, This is the pitts that you're having to contemplate "what to do next" . Just wanted to chime in to say that the liver resection, as much as I didn't want to do it, was not as bad as I thought. I too saw Dr. Hope for a second opinion, when I was trying to decide what to do about the spot on my liver. I asked about RFA and she referred me to Dr. Warren at UCSF. After reviewing my scans, he told me that unfortunately I wasn't a candidate for RFA because my tumor was too close to the main blood vessel (can't think of the name now) in my liver. So, resection was my only other option. I think I was in the hospital about a week, and only had to take pain meds a couple of days after I got home. That was in Nov. of 2002, and I was back to riding my beloved horse in no time at all. Nobody likes to go under the knife, but if you decide to go that route, I can highly reccomend Dr. Warren. He is a highly skilled surgeon with a great personality to boot! All my best, Kim __________________ Diag. Feb 1997 4.5cm IDC <10%ER+, PR-. 5 out of 36 nodes +. Mastectomy followed by 3 rounds Adriamycin/Cytoxin. 5/1997 Hi Dose Chemo w/ Stem cell rescue. Spent 4 weeks in isolation ward. Then 6 weeks radiation. 9/2001 widespread mets to liver. 8 mos Taxotere/Herceptin brought me almost to NED. Stop Taxotere & add Femara . 11/2002 liver resection to remove spot that turned out to be necrosis. Officially NED! 7/2003 Tumor markers rising add Xeloda Disastrous reaction, 8 days hospital, but tumor markers came back to normal! June -Dec 2004 UW Vaccine Trial. 7/2005 MRI single 11mm brain met 8/2005 Gamma Knife. Brain MRI @3 months NED! 2006-2011 brain/body still NED 8/04/11 Taking Herceptin break, will monitor with tumor markers. 6/20/12 Tumor markers begin to rise. CA15-3 is 31.3 and Her2 Serum is at 17.1 Decide to repeat in one month. 7/23/12 CA15-3 now 49.3 Her2 Serum 26.8 8/6/12 Back on Herceptin CA15-3 now 76 Her2 Serum now 49 11/7/12 Add weekly Taxotere for 4 cycles 2/2013 Stopped Taxotere added Perjeta. MRI shows approx. 50% reduction liver mets. CA15-3 still elevated @ 55. Will continue on just Herceptin & Perjeta. November 2014 Continuing on Herceptin, Perjeta, and Femara indefinitely. Guess I'm NED again, but watching those tumor markers carefully! Dec. 2015 PET scan reveals mass in perirectal area of abdomen.biopsy confirms. Still Her2+, but no longer ER+. Bye bye Femara Jan 2016 Begin Kadcyla March 2016 PET scan shows tumor now barely visible, still NED everywhere else. 2016/2017 continue Kadcyla November 2017 brain MRI reveals small focus of T2 hyperintensity with possible 4mm enhancing nodule. Short term follow up MRI suggested. Stay tuned...