Back again for an annual update

I’m sorry that I don’t participate as frequently as I used to but I get so busy that I kind of try to put cancer in my rear view mirror. It will always be there I guess like a car following me but so far it hasn’t caught me. I just had scans that were clean again so that makes we over 3 years NED and over 12 years with stage IV cancer.

I received my dx July 2, 2016, it was bone mets to the sternum & eventually moved into my ribs. They never could tell me how many ribs were involved because of the locations of the tumors. I am ER/PR & HER2 positive and fortunately my cancer responded well to AI’s only initially and after a year and some progression herceptin was added.

The AI’s & herceptin were effective for about 8 years when the Mets had invaded my lungs. At that point we stopped AI’s and went to a long 6 months of Navelbine. I was hospitalized several times due to low white counts but after 6 months I asked for scans and a change in tx. I was NED on that scan but ended up in the hospital again anyway with a very bad pneumonia. I had about a 6 week break in treatments to get my health back and went onto Affinitor Herceptin and Aromasin. After my next scans in about 6 months we dropped the Affinitor. I have been on Aromasin and herceptin ever since and been NED.

I always laugh when they want me to have scans. They say to me “you haven’t had scans for awhile, do you think we can have you get a scan?” It is the question mark that cracks me up. I used to count the days until I hit exactly 3 months to get a scan in 06 and 07. It did take me awhile to me awhile to get more confident in waiting longer for scans but now it is them pretty much begging me to get my scans.

I always come here to share my scans because I know in 06 when my life stopped I searched high and low for stories like this. Unfortunately most people active on the boards are dealing with their disease being active, needing help dealing with side effects questions or maybe looking into clinical trials. It seems when we become stable or NED for long periods of time we drift away. For that reason I like to come back and let everyone know I am still here, NED and living life! I actually purchased a home last month because I wanted to be sure I was financially sound as I can possibly see hitting social security converting from disability to retirement in another 10 years