Well, friends, I got the WORD today that I am "PERFECT!"
Don't take that TOO seriously, but those words from my med onc did mean good news for me. CT of chest/abdoman did not show anything new or worrysome. MUGA was up at 61 and heart function looked good. Tumor markers continue to stay low where they have been.
Only thing that was the slightest bit "off" was my calcium level, but I know what to do about that.
At my next quarterly med onc visit I will have been off chemo, after some fierce mets, for FOUR YEARS. I would never had imagined this four years ago, even though I was showing some good progress against the mets at that time. God has been very good to me.
The next thing is to pass a couple more requirements for the U of W DNA vaccine trial. I am almost "there." My med onc is all for me doing this and I think they are waiting now for a FISH test to be done on my tumor block (I was HER2 plus 3 by IHC). FISH is required by the FDA, even though I have been successfully maintained on Herceptin all this time.
Just wanted to share these happy results with you. The only thing now is to do well on my brain followups next week. But, I feel this will be fine, too.
This message lets those of you out there who are struggling along know that it IS possible to overcome your metastases and live a reasonable life afterwards.
Guess you have to have some of those stubborn ancestors' genes - they always said I got them all! And I think I am just a pussy cat ..
Latest scans, markers, etc.
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