A year ago I was being discharged after having lung biopsies done, the lining of the lung re-attatached , and several pints of fluid drained! This was a bolt out of the blue. I'd had 12 cancer free years from the primamry diagnosis, and had just begun to think that I was perhaps going to be one of the lucky ones with no further problems-as if!
This year, I have just been discharged from hospital-Hickman Line became infected, so was in for 6 days. With next to no immune system due to the chemo, it was pretty hairy to discover that I didn't repond to antibiotics, and it was only after several days when the " restricted access" antibiotics were administered, that I started to respond.
In the past year, my hormone status has changed from er-, to strongly er+, and yet I didn't respond to hormone treatment. I had limited success with combined taxotere/herceptin, and when on herceptin alone, the short period of stability (2 months) was soon over, and the tumours progressed further. We'd had such high hopes that herceptin alone would have held things at bay, for a while at least, so it's failure to do so has been a bitter blow. I re-started chemo (capecitibine), a few weeks ago, and am now on my second cycle.
Overall I still feel well, deriving huge pleasure from life, and able to do most of what I used to do. I'm so grateful that it was found when it was, as I'd had no symtoms-it was picked up simply through a chance comment to my gastroenterologist, who prudently decided further investigations were wise. Thank goodness he did, as the mets to the pleura he found have now spread to the liver and bone, so tough times ahead. It's hard to find the balance between trying to stay optimistic that we'll find a therapy which will be beneficial to me, and expecting too much-made that mistake with herceptin!
