FEMARA
Comments
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HLB and Chrissy....thank you ladies.....Chrissy, I have some pills left over so I will
start taking them today. Thank you again...❤0 -
Thanks for the encouragement Chrisy :-) I hope it works as long for me too. My TMs have gone down every 3 months since I started it and the way they went was 116, 61, 33, 30. That last drop of only 3 made me wonder if it was already losing effectiveness but its normal range so I will take it!!
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HLB the tumor makers don't work for me, I just have to go on how I feel and if I have something that is really bothersome then they scan me.........sometimes I wished I could just keep an eye on things with a simple blood test......sigh!.......lol.
Anything in the normal range is good and even if it's just outside as sometimes even an infection can change the numbers.....it's only if they keep going up that you should feel concern.
Love n hugs. Chrissy
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Scottie, I have had rib pain, and my MO said it is most likely the femara. Similar to what Chrissy says, it is not the ribs themselves but the stuff in between them, although mine seem very sore to touch even over the bone sometimes. Naproxen (aleve) helps me most of the time, and I am pretty sure exercise would help, too, if I would get back to it. I had been walking 2-3 miles a day, doing some mild upper body strengthening, then felt good and did a LOT of gardening, hauling water to my new plants, had a MAJOR flare-up of LE, now it's hot outside so I don't walk in the heat for fear of making my arm worse (well, that is my excuse ...) so haven't done much exercise in general. This is my first encounter with LE and am having problems typing (not posting much these days) and am afraid to do almost anything that will make my arm worse. I was doing so well with such minimal SEs until this.... *sigh*
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I am not a llowed to take anti inflammatories.....but have had the rib pain
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Thank you ladies....took my first anti-inflammatory today ....will give it a few days and report back. Linda, I can't take Aleve because I'm allergic to it. Will see what the anti-inflammatories do.
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I had left rib pain for several weeks last fall, especially if I would lay on my left side(my cancer side). I was concerned for a while but it gradually went away (just like some of the other pains I've had since starting the letrozole). Hopefully, yours will go away too...
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Lily, can you take a natural form of anti inflamatory? There are two which work very well, they are Boswellia Serata and Curcumin. The first comes from the bark of a tree and the second from the spice tumeric. Used alone or together they can prove very helpful. I have a tetchy tummy and normal anti inflamatories cause me no end of trouble but the natural ones are great.
Love n hugs. Chrissy
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I have tried both the natural ones but not together,what is joint dosage please?
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another natural anti-inflammatory is white willow bark (natural form of aspirin). I take all three. Curcumin 1000 mg per day, willow bark 1 capsule (standardized, but I cannot remember how many mg it is at the moment) and boswellia 300 mg. I take the curcumin and boswellia in the morning and the willow bark in the evening, as it makes me tired while the other two do not.
I cannot take regular aspirin or any NSAIDS (allergic), but this combination works for me. Also, the boswellia seems to help my asthma.
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THanks - I take aspirin for vascular disease, can I take willow bark as well?
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I take turmeric 1000 and boswellia 600, but I don't know what the dose is supposed to be. I think some people who use it for joint pain take a lot more of the boswellia. I read an article about a woman who used it for brain mets and she took 800 three times a day. I'm guessing you may have to experiment. I also read that taking the two together is better than each one separate.
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Lily I wouldn't take the willow bark if you are already taking aspirin. As HLB says with the doses of the Boswellia and Curcumin you need to play with the dose until you find the right one for you. I also take 1000 of the Curcumin and 500 of the Boswellia.
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Been doing a lot of looking, but not a lot of posting. It has been 5 weeks since starting Letrazole and I am scared to find out if it is working or not. Scans should be soon. I'm afraid that it isn't working and my tumor is growing out of control by the second..I think i read that it can take a couple of onths for it to start kicking in. Is this true?
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michelboots, I actually had 2 or 3 NEW nodules pop up within the first few weeks of starting femara, but stuck with it for 3 months, during which nothing new popped up. But the nodules were not getting smaller, so we added afinitor about 6 weeks ago. My MO says it can take about 4 months or sometimes longer for obvious improvement - scans might show it but we are just monitoring those little nodules - cheaper, easy to check, less radiation, less scanxiety, etc. So, yes, it take a fairly long time for this drug to kick in, and if it isn't working, other drugs can be added or tried. I see that you are stage IIb - did you have chemo or surgery before starting the femara?
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I still haven't changed my staging...just can't do it yet. I had mastectomy, then chemo and rads, followed by recon last year.
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Michelboots, sounds like you have done the most aggressive treatment for both local and systemic cancer, and the femara is your insurance policy to keep it from coming back. Your scans should give you a little reassurance, assuming they are clear, but that little doubt in the back of your mind may be there for a very long time. I have done a tremendous amount of work in mindfulness-based practices, and find that I have to work very hard when my brain takes a little detour into those dark places of doubt, but when I recongize that's what is happening, I focus on breathing for a few minutes, acknowledge my fears, then remember that all I have is truly the present moment, so enjoy it for what it is, and no one and nothing (even cancer) cannot take that away from me unless I let it. Don't let your brain tell you those cancer cells may be multiplying because that takes away from the present moment. We cannot know the future, but we can plan for it, try to do all the most healthy things we can to insure our future is as healthy as it can be, but then we have to actually LIVE in THIS MOMENT. Sorry to be so long-winded again, but just hoping you can find a way to reduce all that anxiety. I have a little mantra or prayer:
May you be free from fear and pain.
May you be filled with lovingkindness.
May you have peace.
Sending you and all the other ladies here thoughts of lovingkindess on this June 1, 2013!0 -
OK, I told you all I would report the happenings after I went of of Letrozol. It's been 3 weeks and I feel WORSE than I did before. Try and figure that one out. I already took 2 Aleve this morning. Aches all over the place.....with a few minor other things I didn't have before.
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Artsee maybe just like taking Letrozole to begin with takes a little time maybe the stopping is the same and its just too early in the process. Hopefully a few more weeks will be a huge improvement.........here's hoping.
Love n hugs. Chrissy
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Michelle, when I started L my tm went from 116 to 61 in the first 2 months, so I don't think its always true for everyone. I did go on aa strict protocol with diet, supplements, alternatves and walking for a half hour every day. Idk if that helped or not but I assumed it was mostly the L. Its very scary to wonder and after that first drop in tm I felt a lot better that things were working.
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I started Femera March 1st. Minor joint pain and moderate stiffness in the AM that resolves with yoga stretches, BUT fatigue started about two weeks ago. Major fatigue that is impacting my life. Any suggestions? Does this resolve? I have an appointment with my onc next Friday and will discuss this issue, but suggestions to get through this week are welcome.
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THe fatigue just got worse for me.........don´t know what the solution is to that
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Fatigue for me was probably the worst but I started taking the little pill at night and have found that the fatigue was much better, not gone but better. Over time I still take it at night but there is no fatigue at all now.
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I was having terrible shin, foot, and hip pain and started taking pain power (natural antiinflammatory-enzymes), and the pain went away.
I take the femara between 1 and 2 in the afternoon. It starts knocking me down around 4 or 5 and it is hard to make dinner due to fatigue, so I try to make myself go for a short walk first and that helps, then after I make dinner and eat, I usually feel better. I get a lot of heat surges between 7p and 10p, then they calm down some and I go to bed. I usually have a few milder heat surges during the day. I try to stick to this schedule, because this is the best way I've found that allows me to sleep at night, get up early, and function best during regular work hours during the day.
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Lily - if you take aspirin, do NOT take willow bark as well.
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I take mine between 8-9 pm based on comments I read before I started taking it.
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Thanks for the advice re willow bark, I am feeling really unwell at the moment on my fourth or fifth attack of bronchitis or chest infection since rads.........never had them like this before and also I am not sure how much the fatigue is due to rads or femara....as was on femara when I started rads......and read the post rads fatigue can last a year..........
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Lily55 - Could your bronchitis and chest infection be because of the rads? Pneumonitis is a lot more common than our RO's would like us to think. It can be reversed if caught in time.
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I have asked but they are not interested.....what tests are needed to see if it is pneumonitis?
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I looked it up on Mayo Clinic and a lot of my symptoms fit, MRI a few months ago showed fibrosis on right hand side but not specifically of the lung, my symptoms feel more on the left......lung function test (just blowing in to a tube!) ws normal although felt wheezy to me so they have sent me off to see a heart specialist, mmore and more I am beginning to feel I am on the slippery slope......
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