thereyougothen

Since you asked....

We would have private medical insurance, and I have already been in touch with one of the private clinics. Both Herceptin and Tamoxifen are available there, and this clinic has patients receiving both treatments.

My oncologist basically needs to write o their oncologist. All my records need to be transferred as well.

The have an international patient department, and language doesn't seem to be an issue.

So, it will all be fine. Honest. Don't worry.

first 4mls of herceptin, originally uploaded by thereyougothen.

well, they finally let me have one of those beeping machines.

it was fine. it took 3 needles, and it lasted 8 hours, but it was fine. i managed to get a lot of knitting done in that 8 hours, and reading, and whinging about how long i was there for.

they said "stay 6 hours", I assumed that was worse case scenario. er, nope. it was stay 6 hours after the infusion started. (infusion? who the hell do they think they're kidding? infusion? this ain't no cup of tea!)

so, we got there at 09.30. three needles (ouch) later the cannula was in. the drug finally appeared from the pharmacy at 11.30. so i was attached to the beeping machine from about 10.30 until 5.30. lovely.

i had no nasty side effects, and my blood pressure was fine all three times it was checked, so I can haz more herseptin.

but... remember the heart scans that i hate because they are so awful? well, I have to have more of them. great. thanks. my ejection fraction (did I explain that?) is 53%. that is at the "low end of normal" and according tot he doctor who spoke to me on wednesday, it's 2% lower than their lower limit for herceptin. so, becasue I didn't hit the 55% mark (I was 53% both before and after chemo) I have to have my heart scanned after 6 weeks, instead of 3 months of herceptin. i'm not entirely sure if this means *every* 6 weeks, or just a couple of extra times. this also means that i might have to have my third herceptin at the hospital instead of at home. blah.

next time will only be 2 hours though. or so they said....

EDIT I should say that that was only the first 4mls, the actual dose is 250mls.

they've told us to allow 6 hours for the appointment, there's the administering of the drug, then the watching me to see if I have a bad reaction to it.

i suppose if there's a bad reaction, it means I won't be getting a needle every three weeks for a year. could we call that a bright side?

i assume it will be fine though, Bill is coming with me, but may have to leave to collect N from school, if I have to stay there the whole 6 hours. i hope that's the long estimate though. TT is going home with a friend from school and then to Beavers. So I won't see him until bedtime.

not looking forward to this really. must go get dressed and drink a lot of juice, the better hydrated i am, the easier the needle will be.

Herceptin is a wonder drug, so it's worth it. Honest.

the nice people at Ward 1 at the Western have rescheduled my first Herceptin appt for a week later and at 9.30. So Bill will be home, and we will be able to drop the boys off at school first.

and i forgot to mention that my parents were able to see my new hair via webcam tonight. i love technology!

well, you knew this was coming, didn't you?

chemo for 6 months - that's a session every 3 weeks for 8 sessions

then herceptin for a year - again every 3 weeks

and once i start the herceptin i also start a 5 year course of tamoxifen.

i have a very good to excellent chance of not dying from breast cancer.

statistics:

(but statistics being what they are these will be +/-)

do nothing and have an 85-90% chance.

have hormone suppressing treatment (tamoxifen plus something else i forget) and have a 90-95%

have chemo followed by herceptin & tamoxifen and have a 95-98% chance.

th oncologist said that he considered the extra ~3% benefit from the chemo to be significant enough to think it was worth while.

it is all my choice of course, but he seems nice, so i'll go with his judgement.

first treatment in about 10 days.

my mum is going to extend her trip to stay beyond the first treatment.

and we are going to get an au pair to help us out for 6-8 months. i have never wanted an au pair - we value our space and our privacy so much, but we think this is the right decision. it will hopefully let me go back to work at least between treatments, it will let Bill spend most of his time at work and it will mean that he can always come wiht me to treatments and appointments without having to worry about shcool runs and the like.

more details when i can stand it. but i am feeling psitive about the way forward and know that we just have to grin and bear it.

anyone who fancies knitting me this (in a variety of colours to suit my complexion of course, and perhaps not in scratchy acrylic) would be most welcome to make the attempt....

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30

Entries tagged with herceptin

Medical Stuff in Chile

first 4mls of herceptin

first herceptin today

oh and...

It's the whole darn shootin' match.

Profile

June 2009

Syndicate

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags