It turns out that a cardio-oncologist is a doc who knows something about the heart and oncology drugs. The guy I met yesterday looked way too young too have studied for that many years but really did seem to know his stuff.
Perhaps I'm just getting old.
Some things I learned:
My heart was permanently damaged by the Adriamycin. As a result, my ejection fraction has been bouncing around the low range of normal for years.
Echo cardiograms have a ten point margin of error, so my ejection fraction may not have dropped as much as it appeared.
I have no symptoms of heart failure.
Should I have the symptoms of heart failure, I should go to emergency (no kidding!).
There is no reason that I cannot engage in vigorous excercise (there goes my excuse for not running).
I don't need to stop Herceptin (awesome news).
I might have to go on a drug that protects my heart. The doc is on the fence about it right now but if my ejection fraction drops much more, than he will prescribe it.
Even then, I still won't have to stop Herceptin.
I am being sent for a MUGA - a different kind of heart scan - to see if it picks up anything different than my echo.
I mentioned that there must be some uncertainty, given that he likely hasn't seen many people who've been on Herceptin on a long term basis.
He told me that I am the first. But that there will likely be many more.
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