pinkdove

Have they considered radiotherapy for your wife?  I live in England and have mets to my spine and the whole of my spine has had radiotherapy to it over the past 4 years.  I am also on Zometa which has stabilised my spine (had a fracture in the thoracic area).

 Am also on Xeloda but that's for my liver rather than spine as they tend to treat bone mets here with bisphosphonates rather than chemo.

My Zometa is 15 minutes (which is much better than Pamidronate which was 90 mins).

 However, I've been told with both Zometa and Pamidronate that I should drink a lot of fluid so that's what I do every infusion (and have done for the past 4 years) as I experienced flu like symptoms from my very first infusion and was told that I needed to drink plenty of water and I've never had any more symptoms even when I changed to Zometa.

Hi CelticGwen

 I've been living with spine mets for the past 4 years which are well controlled by Zometa (just been changed from Pamidronate).

 A lot of people seem to manage bone mets quite well and there's always radiotherapy if the pain is too great

I'll have been on Xeloda for two years come next month without any real problems (haven't had the hand and foot syndrome that a lot of people have).

I'm on my 24th cycle of it (since 2006) and noticed a change probably 2 months after first starting it.  I do wonder whether part of it depends on the state of your disease when you first taking it in how quickly it works.

I'm on it indefinitely as I've improved since taking it - having been told in 2006 I had 3 months to live.

Pinkdove 

Hi Sandra

Yes, I had dark urine.  I was initially diagnosed with liver mets in 2004 (no dark urine then) and then in 2006 my tumours began to grow again and this was one of the symptoms I had plus fluid around my middle.   I'm fine at the moment having been on Xeloda since then. 

Pinkdove 

Hi Diana

Good luck with trying to track it down!   I've not heard of the two products you've mentioned but I remember being put off by different fragrances plus the smell of red wine!  I couldn't bear to be around anyone who had strong smelling perfume on either - weird!

Been to Canada once to Tremblant (Quebec) skiing and it was brilliant - the weather, food and the people.   We went to Montreal for the day and had a lovely time, would love to go back but I think the travel insurance would be sky high for me now.   I also have relatives who live in Vancouver.

Pinkdove

Hi

I've had liver mets since 2004 but a liver resection is out of the question for me because I have more than one tumour.   They tend to only do this surgery here if you'll only got a small amount of disease in your liver but as mine is spread throughout my liver it's unfortunately not an option for me.

Pinkdove 

I was diagnosed with liver and spine mets in 2004 but did have pain from my liver because of the state of my disease but I'm glad to say that I'm doing okay now.   I've been on Xeloda since 2006 and this has stablised it considerably (considering I was given 3 months to live then) and my 3 monthly CT scans have shown a reduction each time.

Good luck!

Pinkdove 

Interesting reading the posts on here because although we have free healthcare here in the UK there's still a postcode (or zip code) lottery and some health trusts will fund certain chemos/treatments while others won't.

Herceptin was a point in question.  The media got hold of it (it was only being offered to mets ladies as a trial) and suddenly they were saying it was a 'wonder' drug and that all women should have it.  The one thing they forgot to mention was that it only works for HER2+ women but the power of the media means that all women who are HER2+ now get it.

Although we have a 'free' healthcare service it's not a bottomless pit and the oncologists etc look at the benefits of giving someone a certain treatment and whether it's worth it not only from a medical position but also from a financial position.

I'm waiting to hear whether I have the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene and was also told that advances in breast cancer have gone from strength to strength.  I was first diagnosed 13 years ago and I've noticed a huge difference in the treatments and tests that they can now do.

I suppose a lot of the pharmaceutical companies wouldn't be too pleased with the possibility of a cure?!