Taking Heart

The news out of the annual breast cancer meetings is that the A of ACT chemo and Herceptin are each bad for the heart.

It's enough of a problem that some doctors recommend a switch from the A to another chemo drug combination before Herceptin.

Over the last few months I've noticed some odd feelings in my chest--like a rubber band snapping--about once a day at no particular time. It just feels odd, so of course it got me wondering, "Could something be up?"

I read "But Doctor I Hate Pink's" blog about having read the dosing info for Herceptin (which I've never done) and found that the manufacturer recommends every six month followup on the heart for at least two years after Herceptin treatment ends.

So I decided to report my chest pains and get a followup test. I had one after finishing Herceptin, but none since, even though that last muga scan showed my left ventricle ejection fraction (lvef) at 48 (50 is lower level of normal; better is 55 and up).

I'm still at 48. Before chemo et. al. my lvef was in the 60s, so I'd say 48 is a fair drop. Some of this heart function loss is supposedly recoverable, but it doesn't look like it's going that way for me, at least not almost 2 years past ending Herceptin and chemo treatment.

They did an ultrasound on my heart to see where I'm at; now I'm getting a muga scan to make sure the number is correct and then going to see a cardiologist for a consult.

Swell--is there a doctor and specialty that I'm not going to get to visit on this cancer parade?

I'll keep you posted.