I’ve had 2 rounds of the new wonder drug Enhertu now, and so far, all I can say is that it best be working because it really isn’t that much fun to be on.
First off, having the treatment is a much lengthier affair than the last year of Herceptin and Kadcyla. I have to pop in to the hospital the day before to get my bloods done, then on the day of treatment I need to have an ECG and my SATs taken before and after doing some light exercise, then, if the gods decide all my numbers and graph lines are alright, I can have treatment – which then lasts a couple of hours in itself.
My first round I had it with steroids, and well, the steroids made me feel manic for 3 days – I didn’t sleep, I spent SO MUCH MONEY online shopping, my face was bright red and burning hot and I couldn’t stop eating biscuits – then I completely crashed and couldn’t leave the sofa for 3 days so I had to have the week off work. It took me another week to feel completely normal. By that time the random 3am purchases had stopped showing up at the house too, which was handy!
But one of the worrying side effects of Enhertu is a cough (it can cause lung issues) and it just so happened that I managed to get a bad cough the week of treatment so I spent a while panicing that the side effects that should take a few months to appear had popped up within a week. Que another trip to the hospital to get myself checked out.
Round two was a couple of weeks ago, and this time I went without steroids. I couldn’t face another week with the after effects of them, my bank account definitely couldn’t handle another weekend on them, and I really couldn’t have another week off work recovering from treatment either.
It was a totally different experience, and one I’ll take over the first steroid-y experience. But without the steroids, there was a level of nausea that lasted for about 8 days – 8 days of feeling a permanent level of sickness is not the one. And some pretty intense fatigue for the first few days – which meant a few days of laying on the sofa, being shouted at by the dogs for not playing with them and playing the cancer card when I need a snack.
Like I said, all I can hope for is that Enhertu is doing the magic it is currently famed for. I wish I’d have saved the tweet where oncologists at a conference stood up and clapped at a graph of Enhertu vs Kadcyla. But in lieu of that I’ll leave you with this screenshot from a report from BreastCancer.org
If nothing else, that sounds positive doesn’t it. I only got 11 months out of kadcyla and herceptin, and so if the 12month survival rate for people with MBC is 94% then we have to have hope!
But honestly, if you’re interested in finding out more about Enhertu, I’d suggest having a read of that document – it’s not TOO medical, and it compares the treatment to the last drug I was on so it should give you an idea of how it works.