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I am an old timer but relatively new on this website. I have had a surprisingly normal and full life for someone with such an aggressive form of breast cancer. I am tough, proactive and informed. I am on my third oncologist! So much of living well with cancer is mental. I feel great and normal despite all I have been through and wish to encourage anyone who is newly diagnosed, whatever stage you are. I know that being told you have cancer, even stage 0, is terrifying. If you are interested in my success story to date, it is below.
Originally diagnosed in 1999 at age 39, I was told that my breast cancer was "locally advanced," 20 nodes positive out of 36. I was really scared because all the doctors looked so grim when we talked. I participated in a trial that used the gold standard drugs of the time but in higher doses administered every other week. First 3 doses Adrimycin, then 3 of Taxol, then of Cytoxan. No one was talking about Herceptin back then and I am jealous of those who now get it right away.
In 2002, my breast cancer came back in my posterior ribs. Over almost 2 years, it spread, surprisingly slowly, to 1 tiny spot on my liver and what looked like a tiny lung nodule and more bone mets. Until this point, we had held off doing much beside hormonal treatments and ovary removal for two years so we wouldn't use up options too fast. Also, this was to preserve my quality of life.
February 2004 I started Herceptin and Navelbine weekly plus zometa for bones and all the cancer in my body was gone in less than a year. I got to lower the frequency of Herceptin and zometa to every three weeks.
February 2005 an MRI of my brain (inspired by this website) did show brain mets even though I was not having symptoms. I had Whole Brain Radiation for 20 days followed by Sterotactic Radiosurgery 2 months later. As of August 2005, my brain mets are all gone. I will add MRI of brain to my body scans every 3 months and continue on Herceptin and zometa every 3 weeks.
Isabelle in CT
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