FEMARA
Comments
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I have been on letrozole for 1yr. All along suffering from severe wrist and thumb pain (needing cortisone shot ), constant joint pain night sweats..for the last few months I feel dull achy flank pain. In march, I had a very painful episode. Since then, intermittent dull pain. Could femara effect kidneys? Just wondering. All my recent bloodwork has been great. Any input would be appreciated.
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Is there anything to relieve the neuropathy?0 -
Monty I am tired all the time! 2 yrs in, can't sleep at night, onc wanted to send ne for sleep test, I put that off. Do you take your letrazole in the morning or at night? I take mine at night, was wondering if it would make a difference if I took it in the morning. If I do happen to get 4-6 hours sleep, I can't seem to wake up.0 -
Theresanne Femara like all drugs can have an effect on our kidneys and we need to make sure that we drink a minimum of 2lts of water a day in order to keep them well flushed. While using Femara it is good to be aware that we are more prone to UTI's.
Shelcat some women have used Lyrica for the easing of the symptoms of neuropothy. Have a talk with your doc about this as this drug is usually prescribed for epilepsy. As for the time of day when you take your Femara, I take mine at night but for sometime I needed the aid of Melatonin to help me sleep. Sometimes playing with the time of day can help make the sleeping problem be not as bad and it doesn't matter what time of day you take it as long as you do.
Love n hugs. Chrissy0 -
Thanks Chrissy, don't think I want to take another med though. They just added magnesium as my level was low. I just read that can disturb sleep. I'll take the magnesium and see if it helps with sleep. As far as my feet, I guess I'll just suffer with it, for a while at least. I have to be on Femara the rest of my life or as long as it keeps working. It's been working two years, markers have stayed in the normal range.0 -
Shelcat, Melatonin is a natural not a chemical.......it's produced in our brain but age and some meds interfere with its production so sometimes a sup helps. Its available at Cosco over there and the dosage starts at 1mg...........most find 3mg is enough. My magnesium is always low so I take it every day along with Vit D3 and Calcium.......the three work together to put the strength back in the bones.
Yes, I too am on Femara until it stops working.......been on it for three years now and before that Arimidex..........now that one was really nasty for me!0 -
I have been on Femara/Letrozole since 2008. Now my onc says 2 more years- maybe 5 more.0 -
Hi Beegirl, just wondering if your Onc gave any reason why he wants you to extend the Femara another 2 or possibly 5 years. With your good diagnosis, I thought you would be finished at 5 years. I am just about finished my 6th year of Femara, but my docs are now sitting on the fence, and not really promoting either way with the Femara. They basically said it was up to me, or I could switch to Tamoxofin, however again, totally up to me. They are unsure of what to do at the end of the 5 years and I have basically done the 6th year after my own research.
thanks Ched0 -
Well, Ladies, as of October 21st, I will join the Femara club.
I have been on a two month drug holiday from Anastrozole. After a year, the SEs had become so disabling, I couldn't function. I went to the PCP to rule out any other organic cause for my symptoms (extreme joint and muscle pain - I used a cane to walk; vaginal pain and bleeding from atrophied tissues, bladder issues, extremely high blood pressure, trigger finger and thumb, weight gain, and crippling depression) but the MO knew immediately it was from the Anastrozole.
About the six week mark being off the drug, I started getting my life back again. Now, I'm pretty much at baseline, where I was before starting the AI.
I love and trust my MO, so today when she suggested I try Femara next, I said yes, but only after we get back from vacation.
She said Femara was a "sister" drug to Anastrozole, but not as many women had SEs on it. In fact, studies showed that 25 - 30% of all women on Femara had very few or no SEs on it, as compared to (a whole bunch) on Anastrozole.
If I get the same SEs from Femara, she'l recommend Tamoxifen next, and if that doesn't work, we'll try Aromasin as a last resort. She said that of all the anti-hormonal drugs, her patients reacted the most badly to Aromasin.
If it turns out that nothing else works, and there seems to be more risk than benefit to taking an AI, then she's comfortable letting me go off them completely, since my risk of recurrence is so small to begin with.
It was a hard choice - giving up the freedom of a healthy-feeling body and a happy mind, for a chance to prevent a recurrence that may happen anyway.
But like my Mom always told me, "You won't know til you try." Only this time I won't let it go on so long.0 -
Blessings, that sounds really horrid. I hope femara is kinder to you. I did have quite a few SEs in the beginning, but some went away and others calmed down to more of a hum than a real annoyance.
The only persistent SE is pain in my feet, which is joint pain as far as I can figure out. It lessens if I walk a lot.0 -
Thanks, Momine! The MO cited a recent study where women who were given a scheduled exercise regime prior to starting Femara actually went on to have fewer joint and muscle pain than those who didn't .
Oh, goody! :-(0 -
Blessings, I do have an exercise schedule and even before starting femara I was walking quite a lot and regularly (3 dogs). I am fairly convinced that being physically active is primarily what got me through treatment so relatively easily.0 -
Blessings, I was the same as you on the Arimadex and got changed to Femara after fifteen months........oh boy! What a difference! I have very few SEs and those I do have are easy tocontrol with supplements and movement. Here's hoping you don't have any adverse effects.
Love n hugs. Chrissy0 -
interesting i had awful side effects on Femara! I became extremely depressed too, but apart from weight gain, and knee joint pain and chest tightness (but so far much less tight than when on femara) aromasin seems better for me.......0 -
Lily, we are all different and what suits one does not suit another........all we can do is try and see what works for us. Glad to hear that you are managing with the Aromasin.
Love n hugs. Chrissy0 -
Blessings,
I'm new to this craziness, having just being diagnosed with mets in August. (Yes, I was shocked like everyone else and am still getting my head wrapped around it.) I started Femara just a few weeks back and keep on waiting for the SEs to kick in. I'm wondering if it is accumulative. Anyhow, I've noticed some more hair loss - or maybe that is my imagination. I do exercise 2 -3 times a one plus I walk to and from work. So I hope that Femara works for you. (I still have no idea if it is truly working for me. Too early.)
At any rate - I am so glad I found this group. It's the first thing I check when I get home from work. You all are so encouraging and supportive and that gives me hope.0 -
Dear nature gal, I too had been diagnosed with ILC, no nodes almost 2 years ago. Everyday I worry about recurrence. Anyway, I have been on femara a little over 1year. Lots of joint pain. Excercise does help some. But knowing how well this drug is supposed to work, especially on lobular, I will keep with it as long as I can. Just curious, when you were first diagnosed, what was your treatment. Chemo, mastectomy or lumpectomy? Any hormonal treatments?0 -
Momine - between BMX and Exchange, I exercised regularly and felt great. After Exchange, I had some complications, then quit altogether. BIG mistake! I know I have to keep moving... now all I have to do is get started again! So glad that it worked so well for you...
Oh, Chrissy - thanks for the words of encouragement. Happy that you are experiencing few side effects with the Femara. May it continue to be so for you. xoxoxo
Lily - My MO told me the same thing that Chrissy pointed out... she can never tell which woman will do the best on which drug. What works for one may have absolutely disabling SEs for another. Glad the Aromasin is working out!
NatureGal - I'm so sorry to hear of your recent progression to mets. I can only imagine what you might be going through right now. The only thing I would suggest is don't focus too much on what SEs the Femara might have. You may be surprised. I had a huge amount of hair loss when I started the Arimidex, but 1,000 mg of Biotin a day took care of that. Big hugs to you.0 -
Theresanne - When I was first diagnosed I had two lumpectomies and since that didn't work, a mastectomy. Oh boy, that seems like ages ago! I had chemo - forgot which one, honestly. Dose dense for four treatments and then tamoxifen for five years. I guess the cancer took up house again after being off treatment for a year. I don't have joint pain yet, but had plenty on tamoxifen. Good luck to you - you sound like you are doing quite well outside of the joint pain. I hope that keeps up for you.
Blessings - Thank you for your kind thoughts. Oh, I just keep running through life. In fact, I'm getting ready to wash some windows while the weather is decent! I'll look into Boitin.0 -
Hi, I've been reading this thread off and on for a long time now but this is my first post here. I was given the generic Arimidex to start and have been really struggling with a bunch of the usual SE's for the past 2 years. At my appt last year, my onc had suggested I switch to Tamoxifen but I really didn't want to do that since the AI's are supposed to be better, and so I stayed on the Arimidex. This time I asked to try Femara and I now have the generic version to try. I'm really encouraged to read that some of you found Femara to be easier than Arimidex. I am so hoping that I will have a better time with it. I'll be starting it tomorrow morning.....wish me luck.
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Good luck to you nature gal. I will pray for you that you find peace in every day..maybe till youre100! Thanks for responding. Again..I have seen many times that femara has been shown to be very effective against lobular. Be positive!0 -
Good luck to all those just beginning their journey with Femara! It has kept me stable for three years so far so I hope it does as well for each of you!
Love n hugs. Chrissy0 -
My hair thinned too, but I started taking Biotin with my other vitamins and I do think it has helped. At least I don't think I'm losing as much as I did last year. I'm also treating it better by not trying to blow dry and style it every time so maybe that helped too.0 -
Lee7 - you bring up a good point. We all shed hair daily - it's normal. Most of it ends up in our brushes and we don't think twice about it (at least I didn't, pre BC).
But I have short hair, and truthfully, these days I don't brush it much as it's a good cut, plus the fact that I usually don't care what it looks like :-O. I also don't need to wash it that often, either.
So when I DO wash and style it, sometimes it looks like lots of hair comes out in the towel. But maybe that's just a week's worth of normal shedding?
But it's not as much as it used to be, and the Biotin really helped.0 -
Hi everyone. I started Femara for four months as part of trial to see if it would help shrink the tumor prior to surgery. It worked. No SE. That was the spring of 2010. That fall, after radiation, I started with Letrozole. Almost immediately, I had the Femara shuffle - difficulty walking, particularly after sitting for a while. I read a study that showed 50,000 IU a week was helpful in treating Femara-related side effects..So I tried it and it worked - no more shuffle. Today, I take 5,000 IU of vitamin D3 a day, but other problems have just recently arisen. Now 3 years after starting Letrozole, the joints in all my fingers are painfully stiff, I have elbow and neck pain and my back is not strong. I feel like an old lady - which I guess I am at 59. I started taking a supplement that I've read is really great for joint pain/repair - Flexacil Ultra - but I haven't been on it long enough to notice results. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance for your counsel. Blessings to you all.0 -
Hi everyone, As I said I'd peak in here now and then and keep you posted on the progress of being off of Letrozole.
It's now been 5 month that I went off of the dug after 5 years. I can honestly say for the last two, the pain in my hands is totally gone. So there is hope for you all. I did not notice anything different until a couple of month ago. It is wonderful to be able to wake up and make fists with no pain and walk upon arising with no stiff feet.
Naturegirl...I am shocked and very sorry to hear of your condition. With your LOW number from 2007 it seems impossible that you got mets. WTH? Did they say what happened? It boggles my mind.
Youlooklike.....!0 years of the drug with your low DX? Why? Needless to say I think a lot of us are starting to shake in our boots. I know I am. Cancer SUCKS!!
Hugs to you all, Artsee
I don't know what happened but I don't get a spell check on here anymore...does anyone else have it missing?0 -
I had progression so I was switched to aromasin/afinator ............. which is kicking my ass0 -
Artsee the spell check appears as a wiggly red line under the mispelt word. Then you right click over the word and the dictionary appears or you can manually fix the spelling.
Good to hear that you are returning to normal after your time on Femara.
Love n hugs. Chrissy0 -
Hi Youlooklikeyouneedabeergirl, Did your Onc give you a reason why he/she wants you to continue on for a further 5 years of Femara? Has the Femara worsened your bone density since you started 5 years ago. I am just about finished 6 years, but I am not sure if my bone density will cope with another 4 years of Femara.
thanks Ched0 -
Artsee - Nice to meet you. Exactly - WTF! Oh well. Is there ever a rhyme or reason for getting this darn disease? I am here now, making the most of it. I'm still pretty good at missing out on the SEs, although I do now have some slight lower back pain. I am keeping my fingers crossed the Fermara keeps it in check and the SE are minimal.0
