Need help with treatment choices

[rinaina]

I understand your dilema completely. I was diagnosed in the spring of 2006 with stage I er/pr - her2+ node negative and I had a lumpectomy. I underwent chemo, AC 4 treatments and finishing with radiation next week. I am taking Herceptin for a full year. The fact that you have a problem with a heart valve makes me wonder if Herceptin could cause a further problem as it can affect the heart so that is a question to ask. As for doing chemo...I don't have a good answer. My oncologist and surgeon both felt it absolutely necessary given how aggressive Her+ can be. I wanted to do everything I could to make sure that any lingering bad cells were killed off so I opted to do the chemo and made it though. I am hoping it was the right decision and that it won't come back to haunt me later. As for Herceptin, I researched it and like you found that they knew little on how herceptin works with early stagers like us. My onc felt it was something that could only help not hurt me and I trust him and went with it. I really couldn't find anything negative on using it at this point and again hope it doesn't come back to haunt me later on. I feel okay on the hercepting. The chemo was rough though and I am glad that is over. Why the mastectomy for you if you were node negative?