FEMARA
Comments
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Joan811....If I were you I"d have some further testing, like 'jittermom'. You have an awful lot going on and your pain seems extreme. Just for your own peace of mind. We can tend to make ourselves crazy with the guessing games, and adding more meds into the meds, will only make it more difficult to figure out when you have to eliminate to find out what the culprit is. Keep us posted and hoping you'll feel better soon.
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Joint pain is a known side effect of femara - is it in your joints?
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Jitters mom for me bone pain is a deep dull ache that is relieved by nothing and muscle pain is sharper and can be relieved by warmth and rubbing. Hope this helps.
Love n hugs. Chrissy0 -
Sometimes, applying an ice pack for about 20 minutes will also help relieve pain. Have used that alternating with heat application, for pain relief for about 30 years..
Vickie
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Hi ladies,
I feel so honored to be a member in this forum of brave women. I'm here on behalf of my mom. My mom has been on Femara for almost 5 months and as expected her joint pain got progressively worse to the point that she would wake up in the middle of the night due to excruciating pain in her thumb which would radiate to her elbow and she would rub the affected area to allay her pain. When she started developing pain in her joints, I started reading on how to relieve that and I came across Omega 3, glucosamine, chondroitin, and collagen. so for two weeks, she took a supplement that contained glucosamine, chondroitin, MSM and collagen and her joint pain went away completely. Now she is taking a supplement that only contains glucosamine and chondroitin and she's much better now. Also, she's been exercising which has also helped with her stiff joints.
BTW, My mom (62 yr old) got diagnosed with ILC stage 1 in Dec, 2012 and had mastectomy (right). I really hope that this can help you all great ladies at least with the joint pain.
Best Wishes,
Leo
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Hi Leo,
I have been on Femara for almost 4 years. I have experienced the severe bone pain in my legs, ankles, neck, elbows and fingers. I never had this before taking the meds. I tried everything...supplements, more exercise, sleeping with heating pads, vicodin, etc.
I went to Acupuncture and after the firs treatment, I had no more pain. You need to go as needed for maintenance maybe every six months but it is worth it. I was ready to give up on the meds altogether and throw in the towel the pain was so bad. I couldn't imagine living like that for the duration of 5 years. Give it a try. Do some research for an Acupuncturist who treats cancer patients. I works !!! Good luck to mom. I am 63 and always very active. This is the only thing that took away the horrible pain that I had all day and night everyday.
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jittersmom - here is what my Onco told me. While the Femara can definitely cause joint pain, it is no tlikely to cause arthritis. She said typically if you get arthritis from it, it was already an underlyng condition that would have surfaced sooner or later on its own. So in other words, if you are prone to getting it, Femara certainly doesn't help but if the joint pain is caused by Femara, the symptoms are likely to go away once you discontinue. I guess we will see, my hands and feet are hurting all the time.
As for the muscle vs. bone pain, the bone pain is much deeper than muscle pain. Muscle pain is like the feeling you get after working out a new muscle group but do you remember the aching in your body when you were growing? That's bone pain, much more intense. Hope this helps, I'm no expert, just happened to have asked my Dr. the same questions before.
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jitters,
I do not think that giong off the A.I. drugs is going to make the pain go away. There are real changes in the body, often arthritic conditions. I took Arimidex for 2 months, then stopped due to SEs and starting radiation. The arthritic-like pain in my thumbs and shoulder persisted. I started Femara 2 months after. It's been 17 months on Femara and I was doing great. Now I am experiencing pain like you describe...not ure if it is in the muscle, nervous system, bone...but at certain times (mainly when sitting and confined) the leg pain is quite severe. This is new...I cannot do anything except rub/massage the sore areas or take OTC pain meds. The past two days I took long hot baths with herbal oils and I felt better for awhile. I just never know...and sometimes the pain is so bad I am distracted - kind of like the intensity of a labor pain.
Do you take anything for the pain? I can't imagine taking more drugs each day for pain. But what else to do? I think if I went off it would take a long time to feel better.
I hope you find a way to deal with this...it may come and go.
Tonight, for some reason, hot flashes....very not typical for me. Maybe my metabolism is changing.0 -
Please Bump
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I have started back on this after six weeks holiday from it but put myself on half a dose after just a week , i already have poorer sleep, heart pounding, tight chest etc......now far from sure i will continue with it, but not doing so also worries me
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3 years and 5 months more for me....
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Lily, I started on Arimadex and did so poorly on it that I truly was at that stage older than my 83 yr old mother.........I also at the end (15mth) had a small progression so my onc changed me to Femara. Within a couple of weeks I felt a whole lot better and things continued to improve until I felt myself and still do. My point here being if things are so bad for you ask your onc about changing to something else rather than be on nothing....you may find that the next one be it Arimadex or Aromasin will be a whole lot better for you and way better than nothing at all.
Love n hugs. Chrissy0 -
I like Chrissys post.
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I cannot get to onc til mid June - his schedule not mine but i will take your advice, thank you
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BUMP Please
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Hi
I've been on femara for nearly 5 years now. At first I felt dreadful, but as time went on I felt better. I don't know whether it was physical or mental. I got used to it.
5 years later and I'm scared of coming off this drug. Whether I needed it or not, I will never know, but all I know is.......I've been fine for 5 years whilst on this drug & I am reluctant to give it up.
Yes, I'm more achy, more hairy etc etc but ....I'm here.
Anyone else feel the same?
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Aches I could handle but for me standing up from sitting in a chair was so painful and wobbly I was like a 90 year old......
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maltomlin- I've been on Femara about 14 months, so I have a ways to go, yet. But I think I will feel that way when the time comes. As someone else put it, it's like a security blanket.
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Lily, I have that quite often, but find that if I remember to stretch every 20 minutes or so, it helps a lot.
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Maltomlin........yes, I feel the same way. I've been off of the drug for two weeks, and it's kind of creepy having no protection. But my Dr. keeps saying there is no proof of it doing any good after 5 years, so it would be like taking it for nothing. Gotta keep trusting him I guess. So far no change in how I feel. Didn't think I would yet.
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Maltomlin - I've been on it for a little over a year and a half - and though I'm really looking forward to getting off of it someday, I've already realized that I'm going to be really scared when the 5 years are up. My oncologist told me last visit that some studies are in process about the differences between taking it for 5 years or 10, and I told her then that I wasn't going to be willing to go beyond 5. But it is a security blanket for sure. I've NEVER been any good about taking medication regularly. In a year and a half I've missed one pill - and that was because we unexpectedly got stuck somewhere overnight so I didn't have my medication with me. For me to be that religious about taking something that makes me frankly feel like shit - I'll be scared when it comes time to leave it behind.
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Hello, I took my first Femara yesterday at noon, about 3 hours later nausea, dizziness, headache, and itching began. Has anyone else had that happen? Is it normal or an allergic reaction? Maybe better to take it at bed time? I'm so glad I'm not in this alone.
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wow, that seems very quick for side effects to me gramwe. Have you been exposed to any flu? Do you have medication allergies? I take my Femara at night in order to sleep; if I take it any other time my fatigue really crops up. I don't know. If you are better today & it happens again after you take today's pill, I think I'd call my doc.
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Hi Gramwe. Most unusual to have that sort of reaction so quickly......if you are going to have an allergic reaction it would normally come after a few doses but if it should happen after your next dose please, as Eph said, contact your doc. Taking it at night is good for me also.
Love n hugs. Chrissy
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I am allergic to Codeine. As far as I know I haven't been exposed to the flu or any other illnesses. I felt great yesterday up until those ailments hit, and I'm great today. I'll try it at bedtime tonight, hopefully it wont happen again.
Thanks for your help.0 -
Gramwe......I had tremendous nausea for the first 9 months and now have developed
a very itchy back. I lost a lot of weight because of the nausea....couldn't eat...started
taking a gravol suppository which allowed me to eat. Now the nausea is rare but still have a very itchy back.0 -
I take mine at night and have no SEs so far after 10 months. About stopping after 5 years; I wonder if it stops working the way it does for people who have mets. Some people only get a few months out of it and some get 5 years. If that's the way it works maybe its not so scary and there's no point in taking it anyway. Or...maybe its good to start a different AI after 5 years? Or maybe it would be good to take DIM after 5 years? I just got some today and took my first one. Just going to take both and see what happens. Wish me luck, hope its not a mistake lol!
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Has anyone been experiencing rib pain.....started about a week ago.
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No but are you sure you didn't injure it somehow? I've hurt my twice so far cleaning the tub. Leaning on the edge while scrubbing and it took at least a month to stop hurting!
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Scottie I've had rib pain quite often but it's not the ribs, it's the connective tissue between the ribs. I have found that taking an anti inflamatory and having a massage helps heaps.
HLB I've been on Femara since Oct 2010 and so far so good, it is still working well for me and I sure hope that it continues to do so. For me, regardless of any SE's (which luckily there are few) everyday on this drug is a bonus so long may the bonus' last......lol.
Love n hugs. Chrissy
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