Hi my name is Andrea and yesterday I read Dr McPherson's article written by James Le Fanu in the Daily Telegraph. I h ad a mastectomy in July 2009, have since had 6 TCH treatments and am still receiving herceptin, a total of18 infusions, which is due to finish in August 2010. During my treatment I sort of kept a diary, the main focus of which was 'why didn't anybody tell me how awful chemo treatment could be; how it was definitely cumulative, that doage etc could be reduced and still be effective and so many other things. Nobody tried to explain how exhausted I felt nor how awful my upset 'tummy' could be. No I wasn't sick or nauseous once which is definitely ablessing in disguise. I'm the sort of person who kept on asking my consultant 'was this normal' and received the far from soothing reply 'that everybody is different'. I accept that this may be true but my questions were specific and I really needed to know. Should anybody want to tak to me about this from HealthonLine then I would be delighted to assist in any future surveys. My treatment was fine and I'm sure professional but there was no understanding of the need to be honest and I am sure I had demosntrated that having coped with a mastectomy I could probably cope with anything and not being treated like an idiot was paramount in my mind. Thank you for reading this. Andrea