maryhannah

I thought Shokk's analogy was a good one.  If I found out my husband had been cheating on me, the shock would be far greater than finding out I had breast cancer.  It would mean that I had misplaced my trust in the person with whom I am closest in this world.  My entire judgment and beliefs would be called into question.  My breast is just one part of me, and not by a long shot the most important part, and since I'm one of those people who don't believe that we bring on our own illnesses--just luck of the draw (beyond smoking, of course), finding out it was diseased did not totally rock my life.  My husband cheating on me--I don't know how I would survive.  My greatest and deepest sympathy is with Mrs. Spitzer and I would never presume to judge her.

Abby's Mom,

Please don't get too concerned about your tumor markers.  CEA: 2.5 is the outside normal range for non-smokers, 5.0 for smokers; CA 27-29: 37 is the outside normal range; HER2 serum: outside normal range is 15.  I had mine taken immediately before beginning chemotherapy and they were slightly above normal: CA 27-29 was 43 (had it done again and it went to 45); HER2 serum was 16; CEA was 2.5.  During the course of my year's treatment I had just about every kind of scan, other than bone scan.  PET/CT; lung CT; brain MRI with contrast, and three mammograms and everything is normal.  My numbers did go down during chemo and herceptin, but never very far down, and at the end of my year of treatment my CA 27-29 went back to 37.  It's twenty months now and I'm doing fine.   As most doctors will tell you tumor markers are not reliable for detecting recurrence--or at least not with numbers like yours, which is not that high.  What they are reliable for is creating anxiety.  You may just be that odd person at the high end of normal or you could also have one of the many benign conditions that give you elevated markers.  Most doctors don't get worried unless your numbers double and then double again.  I wish I never had mine taken (or at the very least I was never told about them.)