ER/PR- HER2+ and local recurrence, anyone???

I was diagnosed back in April 2010 with 1.8cm 1/2 nodes (micrometastasis) estrogen positive on my left breast. 0.8mm mass 0/2 node - triple negative + DCIS on right breast. I had double mastectomy. I did not get any Chemos. I was on tamoxifen. 11 months later I had recurrence on my chest wall - left side. Surgery to take out mass and 6 weeks of radiation therapy followed. Medication was chaged to Femara. My radiation therapy ended in Aug 2011. Statistics for chest wall recurrence after mastectomy is not great but I have read (and my oncologist had mentioned to me) if recurrence is on biopsy site it might not have same reduced prognosis and there are some cases that cancer never returned even though recurrent site is far from biopsy site. I just saw my oncologist this week. He did not find anything and I am feeling fine. Sometimes I have backpain, neckpain, etc all causes me to worry but otherwise I am OK. We also did tumor marker and they were in normal range. I understand how you feel about treatment. I, too sometimes feel like saying "Give me more meds, why am I only on this pill? That is the reason I had my recurrence..." But in my calm days I am happy that I am having easy treatment schedule that I am having excellent quality of life no different from pre-diagnosis days. At my diagnosis my Oncotype DX was 16 I opted for no chemo. You are not really ripped off of Xeloda and Tykerb because they will be there for you when you need them in future. And you know what that future may never come, you know  Love you...

For me, I found it like you said, self exam. I looked in a mirror and my previous biopsy site looked different and felt hard to touch. Then I went to this website read about local recurrence - how it looked etc. It may look pink and pearly, hard to touch...That is what I had. I pray for all of you, too, from now on. Never thought of doing it...