Feb 1, 2011 10:28AM TonLee wrote:

Welcome AlaskaAngel!  I see from your tag you chose to skip Herceptin and you are 10 years out!!  Amazing.  I'm sure you've told the story a hundred times on this board, would you care to make it 101 as to why you chose to skip Herceptin?  Was it offered at the time?  Details!!  Lol

 MMM5 welcome!  Do you celebrate every year?  Do you think that's important to do?  I plan on living a long time and any reason to celebrate...well, heh, I'm on board.

LL welcome, so glad you are feeling well!  I admit I don't know a lot about Tam or Arm, I am researching as I go, step by step.  I've run across literature suggesting Boniva (Sally Fields is the spokesperson for it) not only rebuilds bone density but early studies indicate it protects against bone cancer.  That's all I've read about it though, so haven't really fleshed it all out.

Sunflower the flax seed ‘should' be fresh, ground (a coffee grinder works great) and eaten within 20 minutes (turns bitter after that) to be most beneficial.  I have several studies on flax seed and how it should be consumed...though at the moment I can't tell you where they are!  I read about it a couple years ago when I wanted to "do something" extra for my health.  But you can go to google scholar and read about it.

Sara I am 42 and thinking about a ovarian ablation.  I have ALWAYS had problems with my periods.  In fact, I would only have two a year so I went on birth control pills for 20 years to force my body to have a monthly cycle.  Now I wonder if maybe my body knew estrogen would grow cancer and so limited it.  I had a really heavy bad period starting the first day of treatment (TMI..I know) for 10 days...I became anemic (still am) but haven't had one since. 

Don't you hate the "wait for symptoms" reply?  I hate it because a single scan can literally save your life, or at least years of it.

Feb 1, 2011 10:41AM lago wrote:

pejkug3 The one good thing about triple + is there are many different treatments that we respond to (radiation, surgery, herceptin, chemo, als or tamoxifen). If you get herceptin you will get chemo. You might get few rounds (like 4 tx of THC instead of 6 tx). From my own personal experience it would have been a lot more duable to stop at #4.

As far a weight. It's a real tough battle once you have too much and you've had it for most of your life. Try as  hard as you can to get that weight off. Your doctors should be sending you to a nutritionist and someone who can help with an excercise regiment. I'm sure you read the link I posted on the 1st page regarding keeping off the extra weight to reduce recurrance. The oncologist quoted is my oncologist. She is top notch. It's tough but take it slow. It won't happen overnight. It will take at least 1 year to lose 100lbs. I know you can do it this time. I saw my husband lose 60. It's hard work!

mmm5 3 years!!! another way to go girl!

sunflower71 check out this article about Flaxseed. It may reduce recurranced too, well at least it does in mice.  http://www.mskcc.org/mskcc/html/69220.cfm  They are currently doing a study too comparing als to flaxseed:  http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00612560

Feb 1, 2011 10:44AM Omaz wrote:

Feb 1, 2011 11:07AM Smile_On wrote:

No, I met with him Jan 20 and he told me to go on it in Feb. before I had heard about the cross-talk here.  I'm interested to hear what others find out.  I go in for Herceptin the 10th, but I don't see my onc again until March.  Now that I'm done with chemo I only see him every 3 months.  I do know that if I come out of chemopause and start having my period again I will be put back into a chemically induced menapouse.  I don't quite understand all of the cross-talk concern, I guess I have some more researching to do.  I think my onc figures it is better to try something that may show benefits even if it might be more resistant for me b/c of Her2.

I'm reading this article right now, but it is pretty intense.  Maybe somebody else can summarize the cross-talk concern for me.

http://annonc.oxfordjournals.org/content/14/12/1697.full

Feb 1, 2011 11:23AM Omaz wrote:

nora - number 4 was a bear!  Hang in there.  Sometimes I put cold packs on my belly. 

Smile - I'll check the article out this evening.  Thx