I’m a little behind on figuring out how to process the events of the last four months (post surgery).  Pre-surgery, treatment for Her2+ Stage IIIB inflammatory breast cancer was going to be the same, no matter where I went.  I received excellent care at Swedish Hospital in Ballard (Seattle), and greatly appreciate the nurses and the ever-special Elisa.  But, for this stage of treatment, there were different possibilities to consider, and they weren’t offered at Swedish in Ballard.

Because of the “residual tumor burden” left over after treatment with Perjeta, Herceptin, and Taxotere, I qualified for the Katherine trial – a clinical trial being done at Swedish on First Hill.  This is a stage III clinical trial of a drug called Kadcyla, which is currently approved to treat metastatic breast cancer, but they want to see if it helps people like me.  This meant getting in with Dr. Erin Ellis, who is a very good communicator, and very thorough, and having infusions of Kadcyla ever three weeks for 14 treatments.