9/8/06

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,

As you know I have no experience with chemo or anything. Knowing

this I wanted to say how very proud I am to know you all who handle this

'temporary problem' with such a wonderful outlook. We all get our down

days, but I know from my experience (even if it was ancient times), that

your outlook towards this is a LARGE part of beating it. My surgeon

even said, " a good attitude is 95% of the successful recovery from this

illness " . I for one think he's right. Prayers to you all that things

go easily for you. nne is absolutely right, take extra good care

of yourself, both physically and emotionally!

>3a. What's next?

> Posted by: " Margery Allcock " margery@... margeryallcock

> Date: Fri Sep 8, 2006 9:28 am (PDT)

>

>Well, I've had my diagnosis in May '05 (OMG!); chemo until April '06 (nasty);

mastectomy in May '06 (no problem); a little rest, then radiotherapy in July '06

(easy). And I'm now on Arimidex (joint pain, but OK), for the next 5 years

probably.

>

>Last week my oncologist started me on Xeloda - chemo tablets, which I take

twice a day for 14 days, then 7 days off - for 6 months. I haven't had any side

effects yet - has anyone else felt any effects? I find it weird, after

>11 months of letting a nurse feed poison into my veins once every 21 days, to

now have to swallow the stuff every day! But this is a very clever drug: it

goes in your stomach and gets changed there, it goes in your liver and

>gets changed again there, and then it goes in your bloodstream ... now if it

meets a cancer cell it uses an enzyme on that cell to change itself into the

chemo drug and kill the cell! Magic!

>

>After my visit to the onc, he got me a CT scan, which shows a spot on my liver.

This spot was there last May when the BC was first diagnosed, and they thought

it was a haemangioma (benign tumour), but on this latest scan

>it's still there and may be bigger. And may be cancer. So now I have to have

an MRI scan (on Sep. 19th), and the professor who runs that will decide what he

thinks it is and recommend treatment.

>

>Just one durn thing after another ... every time I think it's over, there's

something else crops up - I felt a bit weepy this time, but I'm OK again now.

>

>Thanks for reading.

>Hugs,

>Margery.

Angel (A.K.A. Mari)

mfgershman@...

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