heart issues?

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icerobin62
icerobin62 Member Posts: 15
edited June 2014 in HER2+ (Positive) Breast Cancer

I am a first timer here.  My story goes likes this. I was diagnossed in Jan.06. Surgery followed resulting in bilat mast.  This was followed by the accytoxan/taxol dance.  My tumor was 6 cm and was er, pr postive and her2 postive.  I recieved hercptin for a year once every three weeks.  During this time I had 33 rounds of radition. I finshed herceptin in June.  Since then I developed the dreaded lympodemia In march I went on lisinopril because I began getting easily winded and my ejection fraction dropped to very low nomral.  About two weeks ago I noticed that I had swelling in my neck and face and was getting easily winded again and truning beet red in the face.  The upped my linisopril to 10 mg. I am still having bouts of tirdeness and windness when I am active.  Did anyone else have this problem?  If so what did you do.

Robin

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  • TenderIsOurMight
    TenderIsOurMight Member Posts: 4,493
    edited March 2008



    Hi Robin,



    I've never had this problem, being HER2 negative. But I hope by replying to at least acknowledge your problem which is most unfortunate.



    Do you have a good cardiologist working with you, Robin? If not, the very first thing I would do would be to get in to see a cardiologist and tell them of your symptoms. It's probably silly of me to wonder this, since you have had an ejection fraction test, but then I realized our oncologists can and do order this. Maybe you had the type where they inject you with a little tracer and put a big scan over you. Or maybe you had an echocardiogram, this being done typically by a cardiologist. But with your symptoms, please let a cardiologist go over you, maybe a CT of the chest would be helpful.



    Herceptin is hard on the heart, and frequently causes damage to the muscles so that pumping is not as effective and our ejection fraction may drop low. So you feel short of breath, and tire easily. It sounds like the Lisinopril, which is an ACE inhibitor type of cardiac drug, is being given to help improve you heart's ability to pump blood out effectively. Other reasons for Linisopril can be high blood pressure. Do you have that? Lastly, I don't know what age you are, but avoiding pregnancy is important at least for the time being, given Lisinopril and all.



    Well, perhaps others will have already responded by the time I post this. Please do report your recent symptoms to a cardiologist who specializes in heart problems. Lastly, some people say CoEnzyme Q is helpful in cardiac function, but I would want my doctor to give the go ahead before taking it.



    Welcome to the Breastcancer.org discussion board. We're undergoing some tech changes here, but you'll see great dedication amongst the ladies and men to try to help each individually.



    Please post back with specifics, or any other issues you think of. I'm sorry you're having such a hard time right now. Do hope your seeing a PT for the lymphedema.



    All the best,

    Tender

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  • DebbieB
    DebbieB Member Posts: 161
    edited September 2007
     

    Robin,

    You need to get to a cardiologist!!!  I went thru A/C chemo and radiation to the left breast 5.5 years ago.  Been doing great until April of this year.  I thought I had bronchitis but after 6 trips to doctors in 1 month for shortness of breath, I found out I had congestive heart failure.  I have severe cardiomyopathy with damage to my heart from the chemo.   The heart cath didn't show any blockages.  My ejection fraction is really low (18-22%).  I am now on 6 different meds.  Coreg and Digoxin are the drugs that strengthen my heart function.  I'm also on  Lisinopril which is an ACE inhibitor to lower your blood pressure and treat congestive heart failure.  The Coreg is a Beta Blocker to improve heart function.  Digoxin makes the heart beat more stronger and regularly.  From discussions with my cardiologist, hopefully one of these days I will get down to 1 drug - the Coreg.

    I am only 51 years old and I don't smoke, drink, have high blood pressure or high cholesterol and am not overweight.  So this was quite a shock for me.  More so than being told I had aggressive BC.  According to my cardiologist, about 50-60% of people will respond to the meds.  If I do, I will still be on Coreg the rest of my life.  If I do not respond to the drugs, I will need a defibulator/pacemaker and will end up on the heart transplant list.  My cardiologist wants me on the medications for 6 months before he checks to see if my ejection fraction has improved.  So I'm still waiting to see how things go.  I feel much better although the drugs make you tired.  But I am still here!  I have had to go to a very low sodium diet and I have to weigh myself daily.    

    I don't want to scare anyone.  I'm just trying to bring awareness to women how go thru chemo of the possible heart problems that can occur even years later.  Shortness of breath especially when it wakes you up at night is a symptom as well as from mild exertion.  Swelling is also a symptom.   I would also encourage women to DEMAND muga scans from your oncologist on a regular basis.  My oncologist never did scans although I asked several times.  Now I realize I should have been even more forceful about it or changed oncologist.  Had I been having regular scans, I may have caught this before my ejection fraction got as low as it did.

    Good Luck! 

    Debbie

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