I told my little guy Danny today that he and his big brother would be going to their Nana's house so I could go to the doctor -- for an echo-cardiogram to test for possible heart damage due to Herceptin therapy for breast cancer. Danny -- age three -- asked me, Why you keep doing that? This is the same question he keeps asking -- because he wants to know why I keep going to the doctor. I give him the same answer each time -- that I need to keeping seeing doctors so I can stay healthy. He always seems satisfied with this response, although he continues to ask the same question. He either forgets that he's already asked or he forgets my response or he finds comfort in my routine answer -- or perhaps he is completely aware of his repeat question and just wants me to provide a better explanation. Which is hard to do -- in a three-year-old kind of way -- when my response is the best I've got. I keep going to the doctor in search of health. It's simple. And fortunately, so is Danny -- simple in a young and innocent and pure way. And Joey is too.

Right after my exchange with Danny, Joey -- age five -- said to me, Won't you be glad when you don't need to go to the doctor and you can be healthy all by yourself? Yep, I told him and then realized that these boys have a definite pulse on my cancer journey -- almost two years after it started. They wonder about it and try to figure it out and predict how I must feel. And through it all, I am happy they are involved with me in this intricate adventure. And I am concerned at the same time that what they do know may cause them some stress, some worry, some uncertainty about our future together. My hope is that this experience in their young lives strengthens them, humbles them, prepares them for a future that is not always as simple as the responses I give them about an illness that is so complex. But when it comes down to really simple terms -- that we all can appreciate -- I have my boys and they have me and for today, that is all that matters. Well, that and the fact that my echo-cardiogram today revealed that my heart is just fine.

Herceptin -- a targeted breast cancer drug used to treat women who are Her2 positive -- has received rave reviews and has shown great promise in cutting down on recurrence of this aggressive form of breast cancer. Given over the course of 52 weeks, Herceptin is wondrous for its lack of short-term side effects. There is no hair loss, no compromise of blood counts, no significant sickness. For me, fatigue may have resulted from this treatment -- but it's unclear to me really whether it was the Herceptin or the two small boys I have living in my house that most contributed to my occasional exhaustion. Regardless, I functioned well while receiving Herceptin for the past year -- and I did not suffer anything more than a twinge of pain when my port was accessed for each treatment. In the short term, I have fared well. In the long term, the jury is still out.