November 3, 2005

I asked my oncologist if I could get triple doses of Herceptin every three weeks instead of a single dose each week.  Many of the women on the Her2 website I talk to get their maintenance Herceptin that way.  I asked those women if the side effects were much different and they had nothing remarkable to report.  My doc said triple doses are fine, so today that's what I got.  It will be so much better going in every three weeks.  The cardiac toxicity risks are a bit higher, so I need to go in for regular echocardiograms to be monitor my heart function.  It will certainly make things easier for at least two out of every three weekends :-)

A woman from the UK with breast cancer who was a frequent visitor to one of the UK breast cancer sites lost her battle with breast cancer last Friday.  Her daughter posted this news to the site so everyone would know what happened.  The woman chose an amazing passage for her family and friends to read in her memory.  I am sure they found it very comforting.  I (of course) cried when I read it, but it is so inspirational that I wanted to record it on this site.  Here it is:

All is Well. Death is nothing at all. I have only slipped away into the next room. I am I, and you are you. Whatever we were to each other, that we still are. Call me by my old familiar name, speak to me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference in your tone, wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together. Pray, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was, let it be spoken without effect without the trace of a shadow on it. Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was; there is unbroken continuity. Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just round the corner. All is well.

Henry Scott Holland
1847-1918
Canon of St. Paul's Cathedral