Breast Cancer Herceptin Therapy and WDW

[toodycat]

Hi. I've just been diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer and had a lumpectomy. I'm healing up, but I have a long journey of 12 weeks of chemo followed by one year of herceptin infusions followed by radiation followed by five years of hormone treatment. I'm actually lucky that doctors caught this when they did at a routine mammogram. The cancer was extremely small and I would have never detected it myself.I start chemo next week. Once that finishes, I will be getting herceptin infusions for a year.

Everyone keeps telling me attitude is everything during cancer treatment. I've realized that I probably won't be able to take my son to France this summer as we had been planning, but my outlook does best when I have something to look forward to. So, I was thinking that a road trip across Florida to see some beloved family and friends and spend a few days at WDW might be the thing to look forward to.

For those of you who have been on Herceptin, is it too fatiguing to enjoy a theme park or two? I'm not the kind of person who does 12 hours at a time in a park. For me, WDW is also about the resort, pool and restaurants, so I would be fine with taking breaks, returning to the resort in the middle of the day and adapting my trip as required. What suggestions, if any, can you make? Some people have said this drug is "no problem" while others have told me that they had trouble walking even short distances. i'd love some feedback. Thanks.

 

[zela02]

My sister was in a similar circumstance last year (stage 4/mastectomy). She has just finished chemo and spent two short days in the park. She rented a scooter for those two days, because she got exhausted so easily. Even with that, she was completely drained by the end of the day. Even so, she would have done it again. The planning gave her something to look forward to!! It truly does depend on how you respond to the treatment. She had every side effect imaginable and numerous complications, but there are some people who don't have such severe problems. Plan your trip and have an awesome time!!

 

[tobikaye]

Everyone keeps telling me attitude is everything during cancer treatment. I've realized that I probably won't be able to take my son to France this summer as we had been planning, but my outlook does best when I have something to look forward to. So, I was thinking that a road trip across Florida to see some beloved family and friends and spend a few days at WDW might be the thing to look forward to.

Attitude really can make a difference. My mom was diagnosed with Stage 1, but turned out to be Stage 2, breast cancer on 12/24/14. She had a lumpectomy in January 2015. She started her first round of Chemo in February where she went every 3 weeks for a 2 drug cocktail. Then she had round two of 1 drug Chemo weekly. Then she had daily radiation. She finished her radiation on 9/24/15. She did amazingly well during her treatments and your main issue was fatigue and some tingling/soreness of her feet. Towards the end of chemo, an extended family trip was planned and that did help my mom through radiation since we left for vacation the very next day. She goes next week to set up hormone treatments.

I think in your situation, I would probably plan the trip, but be realistic that there may be more downtime than expected. I wish you much luck on your journey.

 

[PlutoPony]

Agree that attitude is very important. How your body tolerates chemo and radiation is very personal and really varies person to person. That said, in general Herceptin is a drug that is typically very well tolerated. The side effect they really watch for with it is the pumping efficiency / ability of the left ventricle of the heart (in shorthand it's your EF%). And that is normally checked by regular echocardiograms. If your EF% goes down, you may feel like you have a little less stamina and energy but not a drastic change in that. Any decrease in EF% will likely be reversed after you finish the drug.

Personally, I had no problems on Herceptin for the year, would have had no issue going to WDW during that treatment and having a "normal" trip. The main issue I can see is watching sun exposure as that's something you are more sensitive to with chemo. I don't think France has to necessarily be out. However, I understand not wanting to risk the plans and $ for France, not knowing in advance how you are going to feel. This is definitely a YMMV situation.

Best of luck to you!

 

[Aladora]

Hi. I've just been diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer and had a lumpectomy. I'm healing up, but I have a long journey of 12 weeks of chemo followed by one year of herceptin infusions followed by radiation followed by five years of hormone treatment. I'm actually lucky that doctors caught this when they did at a routine mammogram. The cancer was extremely small and I would have never detected it myself.I start chemo next week. Once that finishes, I will be getting herceptin infusions for a year.

Everyone keeps telling me attitude is everything during cancer treatment. I've realized that I probably won't be able to take my son to France this summer as we had been planning, but my outlook does best when I have something to look forward to. So, I was thinking that a road trip across Florida to see some beloved family and friends and spend a few days at WDW might be the thing to look forward to.

For those of you who have been on Herceptin, is it too fatiguing to enjoy a theme park or two? I'm not the kind of person who does 12 hours at a time in a park. For me, WDW is also about the resort, pool and restaurants, so I would be fine with taking breaks, returning to the resort in the middle of the day and adapting my trip as required. What suggestions, if any, can you make? Some people have said this drug is "no problem" while others have told me that they had trouble walking even short distances. i'd love some feedback. Thanks.

First off, I am sorry to read that you are going through this. I was diagnosed almost 9 years ago with stage 2 triple negative breast cancer. I was 34 at the time. I had a lumpectomy, bilateral mastectomy, bilateral oopherectomy and between the 1st and 2nd surgeries I did 18 weeks of nasty chemo. Because I was triple negative, I didn't have the option of hormone treatment and since I had the bilateral mastectomy, I didn't need rads either.

So, starting from the position that my dx and tx was slightly different from your, I can give you some insight about post chemo but not the rest.

I found that the effects of chemo were cumulative. I had 6 chemo sessions and the last one took me longer to bounce back from than all the rest. Depending on when your chemo ends, you might find a long road trip followed by WDW might be a bit much to take. If your trip is a few months after your chemo ends, you should be able to handle that.

I was a member of a young cancer survivor group after I was dx and I remember other women talking about herceptin. Some of them found that they were able to deal with it with very few side effects while others had low energy for a few days after each one. I think your plan of taking breaks and heading back to the resort sounds like a great one, if you are really finding it exhausting you can always look at renting an ecv.

If you want to chat with someone who has been in similar shoes, please feel free to send me a pm here.

Good luck and just know that you can and will get through this!

 

[toodycat]

Thank you everyone for your feedback. I so appreciate hearing from you. We just came back from the oncologist's office where the message sounded pretty optimistic.They are not even certain that I will lose my hair and I am allowed to work part-time and go to Mexico in April as DH and I had planned, though that trip is the opposite of exerting. (We just sit around on lounge chairs all day.) I know I have to take it one day at a time, but looking forward to a WDW trip will definitely lift my spirits. I think we should stay at a monorail resort just for convenience's sake in case I do get really tired. GF or BLT? I will be having 12 chemo sessions in 12 weeks. If all goes according to plan, I'll be done with chemo before the New Year.

 

[toodycat]

I am so glad that I asked for feedback on this. Last night, my sister asked if I wanted to go to WDW in January to celebrate the end of chemo. As tempting as that sounds, after your input, my inclination would be to wait until at least March. She suggested the WL, which I do love...

 

[jt'smom]

My mother inlaw has had weekly Herceptin infusions nonstop for the last 10 years, and it doesn't affect her stamina or give her any side effects at all. Now she does have a port, so I don't know if that makes it easier and less stressful, but that 78 year old lady does her weekly cancer center visit, reads or crochets and gossips for the 30 minutes it takes and then runs around shopping or lunching with friends. She's quite remarkable!

 

[DebbieB]

My mom was on herceptin with no side effects. We went to WDW many times while she was on it and other types of chemo.

 

[sunburnin]

Hi. I've just been diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer and had a lumpectomy. I'm healing up, but I have a long journey of 12 weeks of chemo followed by one year of herceptin infusions followed by radiation followed by five years of hormone treatment. I'm actually lucky that doctors caught this when they did at a routine mammogram. The cancer was extremely small and I would have never detected it myself.I start chemo next week. Once that finishes, I will be getting herceptin infusions for a year.

For those of you who have been on Herceptin, is it too fatiguing to enjoy a theme park or two?

Sorry to hear this and you'll do great! My wife had the exact same diagnosis and treatment plan 5 years ago and you'd never know it even happened. Wishing you the best.

The Herceptin didn't have any effects on her. Probably the easiest part of it all and we cruised between treatments about 8 months in. She did fine on the chemo and the radiation made her the most tired.

Enjoy your vacation. My wife's docs highly recommended we go.

 

[toodycat]

Thanks for the words of encouragement. Glad to hear the Herceptin isn't too bad. I just started chemo last week, but I don't feel too bad. It would be nice to have a vacation to look forward to.

 

[MaggieMollyMom]

Hi there, so sorry you are going through this. My mom had breast cancer as well. I don't have too much to add except that she was very fatigued after chemo ended.

You asked about resorts, have you looked into poly?

 

[euclid2323]

Hi there, I'm currently undergoing breast cancer treatment as well and wanted to give you some encouragement. I finished chemo in June and have been on just Herceptin since then and have had no side effects from it! I am also undergoing radiation right now and finish next Tuesday, then we leave Friday for Disneyworld, can't wait!! I hope you have a great time, you deserve it!

 

[zela02]

Have fun planning and have a fantastic trip!!