Overwhelmed and under-informed

A lot of information has passed through the space between my ears over the past few days.
We had an appointment with the oncologist yesterday.  He seems to want me to participate in a study.  It is called the "B-47" Study on breast cancer.  Basically it will study the effects of this drug, herceptin, on patients who are HER2-.  This is all breast cancer terminology, so it may not make sense to many of you, but feel free to look it up.

I am HER2-, but I may be able to benefit from taking the medicine(herceptin) that they give to patients who are HER2+.  I'm also ER/P+, which means that the cancer grows in response to estrogen and progesterone.

Anyway, So nowI have to decide if I want to participate in the study, and I really don't know.  I mean, the side of me that has cancer says that I should--because it will help to further research, and I should help with any research that I can.  Then another side of me says, "why"?


Who knows.  Either way, to even be considered for this study, I have to have another surgery to remove a patch of skin that was what they call a positive margin.  This means that part of one of the tumors was really close to the skin wall, so it could be still there.  So after my doctors spoke with each other, they decided that I should have this surgery tomorrow at 7:45 a.m.  So, that is what I am doing.  This morning at around 9:00, I found out that I would be having another surgery less than 24 hours later.

Oh well.  Lots of decisions to make.  If anyone wants to weigh in, feel free to comment. By the way-if you leave a comment, sign your name so I know who you are.