@poptart keeping my fingers crossed for you - that’s rubbish but hopefully those injections did their thing and your latest blood test is ok!
Still waiting for my radiotherapy mark up appointment…
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I’m starting Radiotherapy tomorrow 
If anyone wants a budget friendly spray moisturiser, Aveeno do one for about £6.50!
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Thanks for the support ladies, you guys are the best 
@lumpybyebye they won’t remove it if my neutrophils are too low due to infection risk. I’ll know later today.
The problem is my radio mark up appointment is next Tuesday, so if stupid port isn’t removed tomorrow I’ll likely have to keep it until after radio is completed in May.
I’ll keep you posted! 
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@dilly Just got back from my meeting with the oncologist to find out what drugs I am being put onto and when I restart my Phesgo and had the shock of being told I will be put onto Kadcyla. For the same reason as you because there was still cancerous cells in the tumor that they removed. Felt like a real knock and had a good cry, its seeing the work chemotherapy again! and then being told you have 14 of them every 3 weeks that takes you to next year and sitting with a drip in the chemo chair, exactly the same as you 
Have you started yours yet? She said that it would be a 20 minute drip and shouldn’t have as bad a side effects as “normal” chemo.
You are now not alone in this drug, we can support each other xx
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Oh @tessie86 I’m so sorry this came out of the blue for you xx I had worked out from what was said that I might go onto Kadcyla so I had been able to prepare myself a little bit. But to be blindsided like that is really, really hard. Cry all you need!
I had my first Kadcyla on 27th March. The first infusion is an hour because they like to monitor for any reactions. But after that its about half an hour and then half an hour monitoring at my hospital.
If you go and look in the Targeted Therapies section of the forum, you’ll find a thread by @Jaygo ‘Kadcyla 2026’ for those of us on this new leg of our journey. There’s @Jaygo, @kcim and I think @loupy who also are waiting to see if they are having Kadcyla, so you are not alone xxx
My first cycle was a tough first 5 days (I’m hoping because it was a bit of a shock for my body) then I’ve been OK, apart from ongoing previous chemo side effects. I have high hopes the next cycle will be easier!
Hang in there, dear Tessie, we can all get through this together, just like we did before xxx
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Thank you @dilly I hadn’t heard of it until you mentioned it a few days ago, origionally it was meant to be the Phesgo, so glad it was mentioned on here a few days ago 
I was also told last week that it was unlikely my Radio would start for 12 weeks but then today was told it would be 2-4 weeks as they want to get that done so they can start on the Kadcyla. You get in your head the timescale and then its a knock when it gets changed isn’t it.
Thank you for that I will go and find that page
It is just such a long old journey this. I will be having Zoladex for 5 years now and I think Exemestone (I think that was the name she said will collect on Friday) for 7 years.
Thank goodness for you amazing group of people 
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@tessie86 yeah hang in there. x
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Oh @tessie86 thats rubbish! I am waiting to hear if I need it too as @dilly said, I am so grateful for this forum as without it I feel I wouldn’t have a clue! I went for my zoladex on Saturday and got my three years worth of appointments the receptionist clearly saw the look on my face and said sorry 
it just brings it home what a long journey it is! But we can all do it, we have each other to moan to and I feel like we are all going to be moaning to each other for a while yet 
Sending you lots of love @tessie86 getting news you didn’t expect is just rubbish x
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@nib32 hope it all went ok today x
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@jaygo @emilyxxx All went well with radiotherapy planning appointment today. They were really nice and it was very quick. i just did as I was told, went floppy and let them move me around. It was like climbing onto a giant rowing machine and then being moved about and my arms strapped in. My shoulder was a bit immobile post treatment, but since PICC came out I’ve been doing lots of exercises and found I have made lots of progress and was able to move it enough for radiotherapy postion. Phew! Then you go into scanner which whirrs around you quite noisily , and I felt like I was about to be teleported somewhere! Tatoo hurt much less than an injection, barely ntoiced it. I start week after next!
now I’m trying to work out what work assignments I have accepted that I will now have to cancel and wondering whether I can get SSP. All a bit complicated as I am neither an employee nor self employed, but a “worker” so not sure what that means fro SSP. I shall phone Macmillan advisors tomorrow I think.
@tessie86 oh goodness I’m so sorry to hear this, what a horrible shock!! its going to take a while to get your head around, but hopefully the side effects will be more manageable, and good that you have some fab women here to go though it with together . sending many hugs XXX
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@nib32 thanks for that puts me at ease do tomorrow x
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Oh @tessie86 I’m so sorry! That’s rubbish! Sorry if this is completely wrong, but did you have a Lumpectomy rather than a mastectomy? I’m just wondering if the full mastectomy was given as an option in these circumstances for you and @dilly rather than having to go through so many more chemo cycles?
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I had a single mastectomy and full node clearance. I had a small amount of residual cancer in my breast tumour and also 2 of 3 positive nodes. In one of the nodes the cancer had broken through and spread into the surrounding fatty tissue
The reason we are getting this extra chemo treatment is because our cancer is HER2 Positive and aggressive, so any residual cancer increases our risk of recurrence.
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Ah ok, thanks @dilly for explaining x
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@Mairead_49 good memory I did have a lumpectomy. And as @dilly said because what they removed was cancerous and Her2+ they will provide this drug. Its not full on chemo and wont have the extreme side effects that “normal” chemo has like hair loss, so hopefully will just be a thing that I need to do every three weeks to just stop it coming back. Reading up on it, its a fantastic newish drug that hasn’t been on the NHS for long as its super expensive, so feel quite “lucky” that I can have it. It was just such a shock when there had been no mention of it previously. But there are a few lovely ladies on this page that have started or going to start it so still lots of support 
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Thanks @tessie86. So it seems like Kadcyla is a way to keep the cancer away in the same way some of us with HER2- may have the CDK 4/6 Inhibitors such as Abemaciclib or Ribociclib. It’s amazing that there is so much out there to deal with the nuances of our cancers.
To think, we all probably assumed before diagnosis, that chemo was just chemo, and everyone had the same thing. I certainly did anyway, I had no clue that it was so different for almost everyone.
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@Mairead_49 same I had no clue at all that there were all these different drugs. All I keep saying is science is so clever!
I will be on hormone tables for 7 years i just cant remember the name, picking those up on friday. I think it might be: Exemestane
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Evening ladies, I have a bit of good news. The filgrastim injections worked their magic and my neutrophils are back up to 1.6 (target was 1.5) which means I can have my port surgically removed tomorrow as planned! Yay!
@nib32 Glad all went well at your planning appointment today. I have mine next Tuesday so it was good to read about your experience so I know what to expect. Did you take a dressing gown with you? I seem to remember someone told me to take one.
@tessie86 I’m so sorry you had a bit of a shock regarding the Kadcyla. I don’t really know anything about it as I’m triple negative, so none of those treatments will be beneficial to me (which is both good and bad iykwim). But from what you said in your last post about it being an expensive new drug, it sounds like you’ll be getting the best possible treatment.
I think one thing we’ve all discovered on this shitty journey is that we are more resilient than we give ourselves credit for.
Have a nice evening ladies 
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Kadcyla is so clever: the Herceptin locks onto the HER2 protein in the cancer cell, and then the chemo drug is drawn inside the cell to destroy it!
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@poptart that is such amazing news! I am so happy for you! 
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