Hello Ladies,
I am new to this board, you were recommended to my by the girls at breastcancer.org which is where I have been posting for the past 2 and a half years about my mom.
To begin, my mom was diagnosed in Aug 2004 with DCIS via steriotactic biopsy, she had a lumptectomy, margins were not clear. She had a left sided mastectomy, pathology revealed Stage 1 - 4cm DCIS, 4mm IDC, Grade 1, Her2 +++, grade 1 is rare for her2 but the double checked and it was infact grade 1. Lymph nodes neg. She went on to have 4 rounds A/C. 7 surgeries for failed recons, and ended up with TRAM Flap procedure which was a mess. Sept 07 random PET Scan revealed extensive liver and bone mets. No symptoms. Treated with weekly taxol/herceptin/zometa...PET scan 1/2008 NED complete recovery to which doctors were baffled by. Taxol was stopped December 08, NED still, Nov 09 Herceptin stopped after 2 straight years. Jan 10, new spot in brain. Jan 10, Brain MRI revealed 10 lesions 1.3cm in frontal lobe, 1.2 cm on basal ganglia, 1cm on the Pons the remaining small specks were throughout the cerebellum and cerebrum. Still no symptoms.
To confirm it was the breast cancer and not new primary, craniotomy was performed 2/25/10 on the lesion in frontal lobe, tumor was removed and confirmed her2 positive breast cancer mets to the brain. 3/01/10 began Tykerb, 3/11/10 meets with radiation oncologist for facemask for WBR, she will begin Xeloda same day as rads begin on 3/15/10.
It has been a long ride the past 6 years, and my mom is scared about what side effects she will get from radiation. She is not afraid of the treatment she has been on so many and so that is not the problem. She is worried that WBR will make her very sick and is unable to care for my 13 year old sister.
My mom is a single person who lives on the central coast, ca. She is 55 years old and I am the oldest daughter at 37, I live in San Francisco, my middle sister lives in LA she is 28. There are no support services on the central coast to offer her support or help and so I am trying to find out all I can to help her get through radiation and to give her hope that she can beat this again. If any of you could offer some advice, that would be wonderful.
I wish you all the very best and I send along a big hug to you all.
Michelle
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