Mom's PET/CT results and a ?

[Tom]

Dear friends, I just wanted to take a minute to thank you all for your kind words, not to mention your continued support, be it informational or emotional in nature. Again, I can't express my gratitude enough, for all of the kindness, concern, and prayers that Mom and I both have received from all of you here. It's value cannot be overstated.

I also wanted to respond to the questions some of you posted as well.

StephN is probably right about Mom being a responder to Herceptin. Considering the number of nodes involved and the time they had a free ride to grow, the Herceptin surely helped once it was administered. As far as Mom's age making for a less aggressive course of the disease, I don't know if that applies to estrogen negative BC, but I will try to find out.

Kate, as far as doing something nice for myself, I ordered a new hand plane I have been eyeing for some time now. Maybe I will have the peace of mind for a bit in order to finish Mom's grandfather clock in time for Christmas. But as far as gifts go, there could be none better than knowing her BC is at least under control for the time being.

Sandy H, the reason Mom had no conventional chemotherapy was that she was 80 years old when diagnosed, and also because she was told at the time of the original surgery that she had no node involvement, and it was thought that she was HER2-. Even radiation therapy was being discouraged early on, until the pathology report was corrected to reveal the HER2+ status. Then of course in addition, the extensive node involvement was discovered 8 months later.

Kaye, I give my Mom 900 mg of concentrated curcumin extract from Life Extension, 3 times a day. The green tea extract is 725 mg, containing 250 mg of EGCG, and 425 mg of other polyphenols. The inositol hexaphosphate is 800 mg, with 220 mg of inositol as well. That is given twice a day. She also consumes about a quart of decaffeinated green tea each day as well.