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.
Showing posts with label herceptin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label herceptin. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Monday, November 9, 2009
Cancer CAN Make You Fat
The author of cancervacation.com wrote a great entry about how breast cancer treatment makes most women gain weight--especially if they get the pretreatment steroids for over a year with Herceptin, as I did.
She's right that it sucks. She's also right that it's an element of treatment that most people don't even know about and one there isn't any support for.
When the medicines make you bald, you can get free wigs from many sources, and most insurance will reimburse a "cranial prothesis." The ACS helps you fake eye hair and cure dry skin with their "Look Good, Feel Better" sessions, complete with a fabulous goodie bag of top-name cosmetics. But you're on your own to remake your wardrobe several times through treatment as your body changes more than a teenager's.
I actually was able to put a good portion of my weight gain to good use in building a new DIEP breast after treatment. But, yeah, I've got extra fat elsewhere that I never encountered before. I hate to shop for clothes because I gravitate to things that I would have looked good in before cancer, and I usually don't like and can't easily identify styles that would look good on me now.
Most people have been kind enough not to mention the weight thing, but I remember when a nurse called to do a preop check for my port removal surgery. She started off by asking, "Have you gained a lot of weight?"
Pardon me; who are you?
She said my file was flagged because I'd porked out--of course she didn't use those words, but that's what I heard. I imagined a red flashing computer screen and a hooting car alarm: We've got a fattie here!
So that bothered me a little. And this back fat perplexes me in a constant kind of way. I think I'm actually going to ask my plastic surgeon to get rid of it and generally spruce up the whole middle section during the second stage of my DIEP. That's if I can get over a crippling fear of more surgery, however minor.
I called to schedule an appointment to start working toward DIEP stage II the other day.
I'll keep you posted.
She's right that it sucks. She's also right that it's an element of treatment that most people don't even know about and one there isn't any support for.
When the medicines make you bald, you can get free wigs from many sources, and most insurance will reimburse a "cranial prothesis." The ACS helps you fake eye hair and cure dry skin with their "Look Good, Feel Better" sessions, complete with a fabulous goodie bag of top-name cosmetics. But you're on your own to remake your wardrobe several times through treatment as your body changes more than a teenager's.
I actually was able to put a good portion of my weight gain to good use in building a new DIEP breast after treatment. But, yeah, I've got extra fat elsewhere that I never encountered before. I hate to shop for clothes because I gravitate to things that I would have looked good in before cancer, and I usually don't like and can't easily identify styles that would look good on me now.
Most people have been kind enough not to mention the weight thing, but I remember when a nurse called to do a preop check for my port removal surgery. She started off by asking, "Have you gained a lot of weight?"
Pardon me; who are you?
She said my file was flagged because I'd porked out--of course she didn't use those words, but that's what I heard. I imagined a red flashing computer screen and a hooting car alarm: We've got a fattie here!
So that bothered me a little. And this back fat perplexes me in a constant kind of way. I think I'm actually going to ask my plastic surgeon to get rid of it and generally spruce up the whole middle section during the second stage of my DIEP. That's if I can get over a crippling fear of more surgery, however minor.
I called to schedule an appointment to start working toward DIEP stage II the other day.
I'll keep you posted.
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