December 9th will be 18 months from the day the surgeon walked out of my biopsy and informed my husband that I had inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) and I probably had  about 18 months to live.

 Thank God and science that I had HER2/neu amplification and am a candidate for the drug Herceptin.  After 6 months of chemo (in addition to Herceptin and Aredia) I was cancer free and have remained so for a year.

After chemo they did surgery and radiation; I have not so great permanent dibilitating side effects from that.  In addition since my cancer was the most aggressive form of breast cancer and had spread outside of the lymph nodes to my liver and skeletal system (there were over 30 indiviudal tumors identified on the original PET/CT scan) I will never be considered "cured" and thus will never be taken off of cancer treatments.  The two drugs I continue to take (Herceptin and Zometa) cause bone pain, muscle pain, fatigue, and nausea. 

Looking back; 18 months is a short amount of time to live; but a very long amount of time to survive.   Never take life for granted!  I look forward to many more 18 months.

Hugs

Jessi