hello all
first i would like to wish all of you a belated happy turkey day and i
hope you were all feeling good to eat yesterday.

i just have some good news to share with all of you

i am sure you remember me telling you that in august of this year my
tumor markers were elevated to 100 and that the onc sent me for pet
scan and it showed multiple lesions on my chest wall ( not lungs) and
a small mass on the adrenal gland.

Onc then put me on Arimidex August 20th 2003.  so now i have been on
this for three months and the lastest pet scan shows thta the lesions
are shrinking and i am responding to this drug.  but the yucky part is
that i had all the terrible side effects.  so..last week onc changed
me to Femara and i seem to be doing ok with it.  He wants me to stay
on this til Feb 2004

Oct 16th i had a mediastinal Biopsy and it did come back showing one
of the lesions was malignant and hopefully this is shrinking..they
took 2 biopsies

quick dx for those who dont remember
Oct 99 lumpectomy left breast invasive ductal carcinoma clear margins
axill node dissection nov 99 29 removed 2 were postive

2.9 cm, stage 2, grade 3, ER and PR+ HER2 -.  took tamoxifen for a
year then stopped dont know why i just did

as of now the ER and Pr are STILL+ so that is why the meds are working

please dont jump for joy just yet cuz if the lesions are not gone in
feb onc wants me on the REAL CHEMO TAXOTERE.

so i am feeling pretty happy and pretty good right now.  the femara is
not giving me the terrible side effects like the arimidex did

any thoughts???  by the way tumor markers are down to 98. they went
from 100 in aug to 134 in oct and now down to 98

love linda bliss
be well!!