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Old 07-22-2003, 10:06 AM   #1
KathyB
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My Story - Kathy8

I was originally diagnosed with bc in October 2001. I was Her2+++ with 14 of 17 lymph nodes testing positive. I had a lumpectomy and resection of the lymph nodes (November 2001).

Two weeks after lumpectomy my husband died unexpectedly from a massive heart attack. Buried my husband on a Tuesday and went for further testing (MRI and bone scan) on Wednesday.

All tests came back clear. No cancer anywhere else in my body.

Started with Oncologist in Indianapolis and entered into a clinical trial which consisted of 4 rounds of Adriamycin/Cytoxin. After that I had weekly infusions of Taxol for 12 weeks. Following Taxol I had 38 radiation treatments to the breast back arm pit and neck. I also started on weekly infusions of Herceptin as well.

All seemed to be going great....until February of 2003. I started having trouble with my balance. Reported to Oncologist and sent for an MRI of my head. The MRI revealed 3 tumors in my brain. There were two the size of golf balls and a smaller one as well.

I started wbr and received 20 treatments. The doctors told me I had less than a year to live.

We started researching options that were potentially available. We found this website and found out that many women had had gamma knife surgery.

Well they sent me in for more staging tests to find that there was no cancer present anywhere in my body except for the tumors in my brain. So we pushed to get an appointment with the gamma knife folks in Indianapolis. They said I was a good candidate for the procedure.

I had gamma knife on the three tumors (only because the wbr shrank the tumors by 46% in volume and reduced the size enough to do gamma knife).

I go to get the results of my 3-month post gamma knife MRI tomorrow (7/23). I am getting better each day coming off most of the medications and getting back on with life.

The doctors told me I had less than a year to live.....but I am going to show them that I have many years left instead.

I have been a fighter through the entire journey and refuse to give up.
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