trying to help my mother

[daughter]

Hello everyone,
I just discovered this site few days ago. I was wondering if anyone has advice for me and my mom. She was diagnosed after mammogram in Aug 2005 at age 62 and had surgery soon after.They determined IDC, cancer was 15mm and was removed completely, margins clear but if I remember right, 19 of her lymph nodes were positive, so it was determined to be IIIa. Tumor was ER+ in 30% of the cells and and PR+ in 10% of the cells and HER2 +++. She received 6 chemo every 3 weeks by FAC protocol which she suffered trough pretty badly. I guess I should say that she lives in former Yugoslavia </ST1 and while they have good doctors there, they just don’t have money for all the new technology and medicine. She wasn’t offered a port, or neulasta, or hereceptin – they just don’t have it. Her WBC at one point fell under 100 and she had to be hospitalized. Her RBC were bad too and so were her platelets. I found out about neupogen shots prior to that on breastcancer.org support group, but they don’t give that either until is critical so I managed to buy them myself through a private pharmacy there so she took those after last 3 chemos. She couldn’t have radiation simultaneously because of her blood work but she did have 25 rads after she recovered a bit. She had pretty bad burns at the end and mouth sores for which I sent her Biotene toothpaste and mouth wash, Ulcerease even had one doctor prescribe what they call Magic Mouth wash, the recipe I was given by a lady in a support group.

My mom recovered slowly – had more energy and we were hoping she would come and visit us here in between 3 month check ups. Last week they found cancer on her lungs and her tumor markers went over 120. She is starting new chemo on the 9<SUP>th</SUP>. The doctor council ordered Taxane and maybe xeloda if that doesn’t work well. She will get it weekly this time. They still don’t offer herceptin. I am trying to figure out if there is any way that I can get it in the States and send it to her there. I am so scared and nervous about it. I see a lot of you that are taking it, call it a miracle drug trough all the side effects. I am scared that she is not getting it and I am scared if I can get it if they will be able to use it if that’s not a practice there yet. I am not sure that I can bring her to the States, she wouldn’t want to ruin us financially and I can’t stand to be so helpless. It’s hard for me to be there with her, and I feel terrible that I am so far away. I spent 3 weeks last year and while I enjoyed spending time with her I felt I was doing more good from here than there. I couldn’t even be on the internet – it was so slow. I have younger brother who also lives here and he is so angry that he is not able to help somehow. My mom has a family around her, my dad and my aunts jump in whenever they can. My cousins were big help but they all have jobs and families.
I also sent supplements to her cq10, ecxinacea chewables (she has hard time taking pills, especially large ones) and she’s been taking royal jelly, which she gets from the bee keeper himself not a pill. A lot of people overthere think it’s a miracle product, though I can’s say it helped my mom. I have a friend here who just passed the 5 year mark, her cancer didn’t have nodes involved and she fought not to have chemo, only radiation and decided not to take tamoxifen either. She is doing fine, she was so brave and lucky I might add. She said the royal jelly was helping her with her imune system during radiation. I know this is a long letter but if anyone knows anything that can help I would really appreciate it.
Thanks and keep fighting this horrible deasese.