Hi everyone, This is Cathy -- I'm 52 and was first diagnosed with Stage 1 bc in 1996, at 38. At that time I was living in NYC, ending a significant relationship and planning to become a single mother by choice. Trained as a clinical social worker, I was in private practice and working with emotionally challenged children in a day school. I was comforted by colleagues, friends and family. I met my DH in 1998, he was the proud father to two children 14/12 and we were married in 1999 and adopted Hana (9) in 2001. I was cancer free until 2005 when diagnosed with mets to the liver which responded very well to treatment. Then, 2007 mets to the brain followed by WBR, 7 doses of cyberknife and now, I am in a clinical trial in Boston (I live in New Haven, CT). The results have been remarkable with 78% reduction in the brain mets since November! Oh, I am ER/PR - and HER2 positive. Liver stable and I feel pretty good for a young mom blasted by CA.
My greatest challenge is knowing that my life will not go on forever and what about my daughter...I live a distance from my closest friends and extended family (mother is nearby and quite vital)
Thank you RivkA for starting this group. I look forward to getting to getting to know everyone!
Fondly,
Cathy (CT)
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Welcome aboard!!
ReplyDeleteI am also ER/PR negative and HER2 positive, with mets in my brain (and bones and lungs. I also had in my liver, but that seems to be gone now).
I'd love to know more about this study. Please email me about it: coffeeandchemo@gmail.com
Welcome Cathy!
ReplyDeleteI am glad that you are feeling pretty good despite everything you are dealing with!
Welcome Cathy! Wow, I can't imagine going through cancer and all the other emotional stuff at once. Amazing!
ReplyDeleteRivkA -- I am sorry that you are in Israel -- or, should I say, I wish you and I were geographically closer. I'm not sure if you are in the states but it would sure be great for you to have a consultation with the doc/s heading up this study at Dana Farber in Boston. It involves a cocktail of 3 drugs, all approved but, not approved to be used together for brain mets - Carboplatin, Avastin and Herceptin. The principal investigator is Nancy Lin, MD and she is lovely. Overall, I can't say enough for the care and caretaking at Dana Farber. I have not yet connected with another woman with brain mets. Tell me about your history with this. Fondly, Cathy
ReplyDeleteCathy -- Thanks for the detailed comment!! I see that I would not be elligible for the study anyway, because I had progression (twice) with the Herceptin. I am pretty sure I "used up" that drug.
ReplyDeleteI take Lapatinib/Tykerb now. It's what HER2 cancer patients take when the Herceptin stops working.
ps -- for more details about how I dealt/deal with brain mets, search for "brain mets" on my main blog coffeeandchemo.com
ReplyDeleteI have posted quite a bit about it.
OK ladies, I got a little giggle that the horrifying combination of drugs is called a cocktail! If so, bottoms up to total recovery.
ReplyDeleteWelcome aboard, Cathy. There are blessings with cancer, and I think the friendships we are beginning with this blog is going to be one of them.
Hi. Lifting all you gals up in prayer.
ReplyDeleteAn answer to prayer for the mom with cancer is the gerson diet. It cured my friends lymphoma 100 percent and now i m on it for thyroid cancer and the tumor shrunk by 50 percent so far. Conventional treatment is not the answer girls. -mom with cancer
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