Came on to ask if anyone has been abroad during Kadcyla treatment? If yes what about health insurance? I really need a break and have option to visit family in The Netherlands for 3 nights, driving via euro tunnel.
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@salbert just finished watching Eurovision. Great winning song. Wish Iâd heard your shout out! If it had been a work morning I probably would of.
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@gromit12 Well done 
How do you find out about all of these events? I would have come out and done that since itâs just down the road from me and I had nothing to do yesterday 
@jayveebee I had a work trip to the US between cycles 8 and 9 I think? I wasnât going to the US without extra travel insurance so I got a policy through the company called insurance with: https://www.insurancewith.com/ It was about ÂŁ90 if I remember correctly for a single trip policy (including extra terrorist coverage since that was when planes were falling out of the sky) which I thought was quite reasonable for a trip to the US. I didnât have to use it since I just started feeling ill on the flight back and tested positive for Covid when I got back.
If you are going to travel, there are only certain pharmacies that can dispense the antivirals for Covid and I spent a lot of my first day back trying to figure out where I could get my prescription filled since no one actually knew.
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Wow well done
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Blimey @gromit12 you are an inspiration!! 
xx
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@sn25 and @jobieejo - well done ladies on nailing that first chemo session ! I hope you are both not too badly hot with side effects x
@hasnae87 - My chemo was Nov to Feb which is prime respiratory bug and norovirus season so I became a bit of a hermit ⌠I wore a mask for all appointments and didnât go anywhere really ⌠that said ⌠I went for as many walks as I felt up
to and did go to my local garden centre masked up . After Christmas we did drive up to N Wales to visit my mum⌠as sheâs also a cancer thriver I knew she wouldnât let me visit if she had a bug âŚ
Interestingly my neutrophils actually went UP during chemo ⌠a rare phenomenon known as neutrophil recruitment ⌠my body never does whatâs expected of it 
unlike others on herceptin ⌠my ejection fraction has gone up from 57 to 69 per cent âŚ. Whatâs that all about ?!
@salbert - Friday was a bit if a fiasco but Iâll
Save that fit another post ., Iâd love chemo curls ! Sadly my hair is coming back straighter than ever âŚ
I didnât watch Eurovision but heard we got nil points ?!
@gromit12 you are a Blimmin powerhouse !!!
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Early this year I did my first total panic post on here convinced there was no way I would cope with cancer treatment. Thanks to some lovely replies from people who just âgot itâ and made lots of very helpful suggestions, here I am halfway through my first 12 chemo sessions. When I finally plucked up courage to tell my kids I said I wanted distractions when they asked how they could help. I will try and attach a couple of pics of yesterdayâs trip, Gaping Gill in Yorkshire is what my youngest came up with.
I wasnât at all sure Iâd manage it, even whether Iâd manage the 1 1/2hr walk / scramble up the hill but I did and feel great for it. Dropped into a huge cave by winch then presented with climbing a pile of rocks and going for a crawl! I felt pretty safe from bugs on a windy hillside and the cave was huge, no one near us. Moral isâŚit doesnât matter what you doâŚdrop into a cave or learn to crochetâŚif it feels like a âmaybeâ just go for it when you can. I could even taste the ice cream we got when we were back down in the village. Also on the trip was âGilbertâ a small stuffed animal of indeterminate species that spent years in my husbandâs van travelling with him for work. I promised my husband when he died last year Iâd do stuff for both of us! Ladies - you helped me get this far, thanks so much. Have the best week you can and @salbert very best wishes for your reconstruction this week. Love, crazy Granny Carrie
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@kartoffel oh what a shame! Having lived in the area for so long Iâve done races with these organisations before. This was deferred from last year xx
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@carrie5 just love this post 
x
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@carrie5 another huge inspiration. How brave some of you ladies are. It is fantastic.
Cancer doesnât stand a chance! M
Xxx
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Can someone explain to me what the neutrophils relation with our health, my neutrophils went up to 12.4 on my last blood test and they carry on the chemo !!
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Well done you are true friend inspiration.
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Morning ladies
Hope you all had a nice weekend and got to enjoy some sunshine?
I wanted to ask a general question please on why some people have kadcyla after the other treatments?
Thanks
Xxx
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Neutrophils help fight infection, theyâre concerned if they drop too low (neutropenia) during chemo as then you would be more vulnerable if you got an infection. Are you having the GCSF injections? These boost the neutrophil count (and some other cells). Your team will have a level theyâre concerned about it going over but 12 isnât too much higher than normal. Mine went to 30 after I had been neutropenic so given extra GCSF and they carried on with chemo then too!
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Morningâşď¸ you have Kadcyla if you have had neoadjuvant chemotherapy for a HER2 positive cancer and then have your surgery and lab analysis shows that there is residual cancer is left (I.e donât get a complete pathological response where all of the cancer cells in the tissue removed have been killed by the chemo). The Kadcyla is used instead of phesgo or Herceptin as it is more effective in good long term outcomes when there has been residual disease left. The recommended amount of cycles is 14 - one every 3 weeks. It is a targetted chemo where the Herceptin element of it seeks out HER2 positive cells and then once it finds them it latches onto them and releases the chemo element to specifically kill them
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@carrie5 just over 27 miles!
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Thanks for your answer @belle1. Very clearâ¤ď¸
I wondered why never mentioned to me but I had surgery first as they suspected a possible invasive element but biopsy showed only DCIS. After lumpectomy they did find IDC and it is only HER2+. All now removed (nothing in lymph nodes) so chemo to enable the year of Herceptin jabs.
Makes sense. Hope you are doing well?
Xxx
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@gromit12 Thatâs awesome! Hope youâre not too broken!
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Hello lovely ladies.
What a pickle I am in, I started chemo Jan 25 3 EC but only had 2 due to the bugger not shrinking, triple positive. Went on to Pacxy and only managed 6 with x 4 phesgo due to my MH and the fact that it wasnât working amazingly, decided to go to surgery which was a success all cancer gone and nothing in the lymph nodes, I assumed i would go onto herceptin jab but now Kadcyla has been offered. I donât know what to do, it would mean a pic line as my veins are not good. Really stressed due to the effects of the chemo on my before 
xx
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Yeah, it can definitely be a bit confusing as I didnât realise about Kadcyla till after my initial chemo too. Yes Iâm doing well thanks, just about to get Kadcyla number 9!
@debly123 it would be worthwhile speaking to your team to ask why theyâre recommending Kadcyla and what benefit itâll have etc in your circumstances. Another option is to phone the BCN helpline to have a chat as well. There is a Kadcyla website too where it has more info re: the trials etc. I was gutted at being told I needed Kadcyla but personally Iâve found it much better than the neoadjuvant chemo (where my neutrophils were battered and I had infections/complications) and Iâm living a fairly normal life again now. I felt a bit better starting it too when I seen how effective it is, even in comparison to Herceptin alone!
I donât like to tell people to do things as everyone is different/has their own views etc but my advice would be to do your research and remember that if you give it a go and it doesnât agree with you then you can get a dose reduction or stop and revert back to Herceptin, and if it does agree with you then great 
my tumour didnât respond that well to original chemo so itâs peace of mind for me having this other line of treatment available
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