Good news!

[TriciaK]

I've had some rough times for awhile with cardiomyopathy and heart failure, most likely aggravated by 15 months of herceptin. The herceptin was stopped over a year and a half ago when my ejection fraction dropped to 30 and then I had a triple bypass a year ago in May. This spring the heart failure seemed worse and about 2 weeks ago I was referred by my cardiologist to a surgeon who puts in defibrulators for people with serious irregular heart rhythms that could cause sudden death. In talking to my husband and me, he said I would need to meet certain criteria before he would do the surgery: (1) he would have me wear a 24-hour heart monitor to record the electric rhythms of my heart, (2) he would carefully study my cardiac history, including records of my bypass, stress tests, ejection fraction and other heart tests, and (3) he would talk to my oncologist about my life expectancy as a stage IV cancer patient, since it would be foolish to go through the surgery if I only had a short time to live. Today I saw him again after he followed up on these things, and the first thing he said was "I don't often have such good news to give to someone with your history!" Then he proceeded to tell me that he wouldn't do the surgery to implant the defibrulator because (1) the heart monitor showed the electrical rhythms of my heart were much better than he feared they might by (2) my ejection fraction had improved from 30 to between 40 and 45, and (3) my oncologist told him that I was doing very well, had been NED for the past two years, and probably had an above average life expectancy for a stage IV patient. My husband and I went out for dinner to celebrate! He had a steak and I had crablegs, which I love. We even shared a rich and gooey dessert! I know how much I love to hear good news on this website, so felt I needed to share this with you. As most of you know, I'm 77, I've been fighting cancer for 22 years, first in 1985, then mets to my spine in 1990, and then her2 mets to my lungs in 2004, which were found because a heart attack put me in the hospital for a month. It's been a roller coaster ride for my husband and me but today was good news! My next CT scan will be in December. I'll be in touch! Hugs, Tricia