FEMARA
Comments
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MJBMILLER
IMHO I think your emotions want calm down until you are through radiation and have healed from any burns that it may or may not have caused. I think I cried daily through my radation treatment and I cried lots the two weeks it took my skin to heal. It is hard to move on when you are still in active treatment. Plus we have so little estrogen running through our body that we are hit with a double whammy. Give yourself time the episodes will get better. Then when you least expect something will make you cry. Sorry this happen to me last night. We have gotten a rare snow-ice storm and they were announcing the closing. Lexington Oncology came up and said that chemo patients would be called with a new appointment times. Gee it brought back all those memories from last year. All I could think was I was there in that same spot last year.
As far a Femara. Having a few warm flashes at night and still having joint pain. I hope my body can stay on this. I do think my neuropathy seems to be worse but not sure since that pain comes and goes anyway. Seems to be worse when I am warm so it might be the warm flashes causing it to act up. We can do it! Four years, 10 months and 3 weeks to go!
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mjbmiller;
Even though you don't care for sleep aids, might I suggest you try melatonin. It is naturally produced by our bodies but it decreases as we age. My daughter's neurologist has her using it to deal with migraines and sleeping problems relating to them. I asked my onc and he said yes to melatonin. My daughter takes 9 mgs/night and I usually take 3 - 6 mgs/night when I am having difficulty. I only use it once or twice per year.
Good luck. Heather0 -
Is the melatonin prescribed or OTC, thanks for the suggestion. Woke up again at 3:00am.
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You can find it in most any vitamin section. I use it whenever I have insomnia, which is several times a week. I have a nice deep sleep, and it's safe.
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Everytime I take melatonin, I seem to be groggy in the morning. I notice the bottle says it lasts 7-8 hours. maybe I'm groggy because I'm getting up before the 7-8 hours is up???
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I'm groggy when I first awaken but it goes away quickly. It's as if I'm awakened from a very deep sleep.
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I know that the Se's are different for everyone, so has anyone had pain that feels similar to hitting your funny bone? and if so, any advice on how to deal with it
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Okay Ladies, has anyone else seen a huge jump in their cholesterol since starting femara? Mine is up 50 pts from last year right before I started this crappy medicine! It was 158 last year and is now 208! It has got to be the femara, wouldn't you think? Or perhaps it might be the menopause thing (from ooph)--Anyone else with this???
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Mybails.... I am with you with the strange funny bone pain. I have only been on Femara for 8 weeks now. About a month after I started Femara, it showed up in one elbow, but recently it went away. The stiffness in my joints seems to be lessening also so I am hoping that I am going to be tolerate it.0
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weety, Yes, the Femara can cause a huge jump in cholesterol; it did for me! I had to start taking a low dose of Lipitor to keep it under control.
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increase cholestrol & blood sugars, but starting to go back down after several months
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Yes, my cholesterol jumped markedly too (5.3 to 6.3). I suggested to GP that it might be Femara and he said he didn't know it had that SE but when he looked it up sure enough it was listed. I am on 20mg Simvastatin per day and that has lowered it to a level better than it has ever been.
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Mine went up from the 170s to the 190s in one year.
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Thanks all for all the info on chol & the AI's . My doctor also told me that it wouldn't have an effect on cholesterol. At what point is lipitor (or something like it--is it a statin? I don't even know what class of drugs chol-lowering drugs fall into) needed? How high is high enough to bring it up as an option? Mine is 208 now, up 50 pts from 158 last year.
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I have a two month followup with my MO next week and I have lots of questions for him. I have been surpised my SE have not been as bad as some. I have not had my cholesterol checked in a while but I am sure my MO is keeping track of that? I think I need to see my GP soon, he has been monitoring my thyroid levels since I am on syntroid.
Lack of sleep is better though.
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My cholesterol is up too. I hope in time it will go back down too. I wonder what GP will say when I see him next month. Ugh....
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Has anyone gone on a femara" vacation" to see if some these things resolve? I am thinking about asking for that this summer....
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My cholesterol went down. It was 225 in 2009 Had it checked in dec went down to 154 my md was pleased.
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momand2kids- I did go on a femara vacation. When I started it Jan 2009, I had slight trigger fingers in 3 fingers and severe joint pain within just a month or so. I took 6 weeks off, and it all went away. I then started back, but decide on my own, I was just going to take 1/2 a pill. My Onc agreed, though he would rather me take a whole one of course. No more trigger finger, but still pretty bad joint pain. I did have an ooph as well, so I'm sure that has contributed to the s/e's as well. I had my estrogen level tested, just to make sure I was achieving estrogen suppression with a half a pill. And it came back low, so I feel comfortable with that dose.
Hoping now to find some way to alleviate joint pain, without taking pain pills. Taking glucosmine/chondroitin, gelatin capsules, calcium and Vit D. Just started a low dose of Nuerontin (300mg) for hot flashes, and hoping to get some benefit for the joint pain from that. BTW, the nuerontin has greatly helped the hot flashes. I was having 8-10 hot flashes a day, and my endocrinologist said " that's alot". He said Nuerontin (gabapentin) is prescribed up to 5000mg for seizures, depression, etc., but has been found at low doses to help with hot flashes. I hated starting another med, but at the same time felt like I was about to burn up, dry up, shrivel up from all the hot flashes:)
Joni
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Hi all, have not posted in awhile. Having gone from Arimidex to Femara has been like a dream come true. Just finished PT for wrist problems which has pain has subsided quite alot from A which I was on for 7 months, had a vacation of two months and started F in Oct, perhaps one flash a day if any.
I go to Onc this Thursday, hope my blood levels and everything is ok.
Happy New Year to all.
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I am having trigger finger in my thumb!!! This stuff is so painful!! To all my femara friends who have had trigger finger, does it go away as a lot of the other things do on the med? Or is it here to stay? If it is here to stay, I am gonna talk to my oncologist about going to half a pill a day. Also, my last surgery was under my left arm. Cancer is now gone but I am having one heck of a time with numbness and tingling in fingers and also bottom of arm from hand to elbow. Has anyone else had this? I am wondering if it could be a build up of scar tissue. I see onc. again in March and will ask him about it.
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My fingertips are almost completely numb. I have found neuropathy listed among the Femara side effects. Not sure if that's why I still have numbness or if it's a lingering effect from chemo.
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I just read what trigger finger was. Evidently I had this slightly before cancer and yes it is acting up big time in the last two weeks. I have it in my middle finger. I too have numb fingers but so far the Femara has not made it worse. Mine is from taxol and I also have numb feet and from the knee down on the inside of my legs.
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I have my neuropathy lingering from my taxol treatments still. So far only my finger tips and toes are affected. I have an appointment with MO and have lots of questions since I have been on Femara for three months now. SE still have not been too bad.
KittyDog - like you my friend who started two months before me, had her whole legs affected. She seems to be doing better but still has problems.
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Ive been on femara 2 years now and I am having terrible joint pain- especially in my right knee. I see my onc in a couple of weeks and am tempted to ask for a bone scan because it hurts that much. Our household all got the stomach bug during the holidays and I skipped three days because I couldnt eat at all or take anything and the bone pain started decreasing in just those three days.
My cholesterol has also gone up- I really dont want to add another prescription for that so Im trying some alternatives. Also noticed some blood pressure increase- dont know if that is femara or some other SE of all the crap in the last 3 years.
My hair came back after chemo and is thicker than ever according to my haridresser!
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Weety - 200 - 239 is considered borderline high (it is numbered 5.2-6.2 in NZ). 240 and above is considered high. Mine has always sat at 5.3 (which is probably about what yours is now) but about 6 months after starting Femara it was up to 6.2 and the doctor said it was too high and put me on the statin. He said he had considered the four risk factors for stroke and heart attack - high BP, high cholesterol, diabetes and obesity when making the decision to put me on cholesterol medication. Although I don't have diabetes, I have high BP (although it is well controlled by medication) and I am now 30lbs overweight (thanks to Femara too) so the high cholesterol was a third risk factor which he wanted to get rid of. If I had none of the other risk factors my doctor would, and did, accept a cholesterol level at the lower end of the borderline high grading as a single risk factor. Best of luck with you decision.0
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To my trigger finger friends, someday my wrists are affected with neuropathy. Somedays good, somedays not so good. First thing waking up with wrist problems is awful, but much better than in the summer when I was taken off Arimidex.
I have a question to ask. I had the Novartis coupon, and after 4 $10.00 prescriptions, CVS told me that Novartis pays only up to $800.00 of what the co-pay is. Tonight I had to pay $99.00. My co-pay will be 50% of the drug which has gone up to $522.00, last summer it was $430.00. Has anyone else noticed an increase in the retail drug cost. Oh well, it will keep me bz tomorrow calling the drug company. The retail price is going up and up and up. Has anyone on this site used the Novartis coupon. Will check back tomorrow.
Thank you. Good night.
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ronqt1- I got my femara prescribed last Jan, and I printed off the Novatis coupon...took it to Walmart. They entered the info in their computer and it was good for the whole year. $10 every month. I just got my new prescription, and thought that maybe I should go to the Novartis website and print out a new one for this year. So I did, and when Walmart entered it, it didn't work. They called Novartis and in about 15 minutes I got the prescription for $10. I did noticed it went up from $458 last year to over $500 this year.
Try again, or maybe you could contact Novartis yourself and ask about it.
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Okay, now I have a new problem to worry about (always something!) As you kknow, I am currently on femara, having normal side effects, but nothing too terrible (except the higher cholesterol) My onc asked me at my appt this week if the pharmacy had called me about switching to arimidex. I'm assuming they are asking all willing patients to switch since it is so much cheaper now that the generic has come out. I think it's pretty much a done deal (that's what happens when you have an HMO, I guess) but he did ask me again, right before I left if it was okay to switch. I told him I'd have to think about it--I'm not having any more than the usual side effects (besides feeling old and crickety etc) but I'm afraid to switch--what if it's worse? What do you all think? Should I put up a fight and kick and scream to keep the femara? Or should I choose my battles and let this one go, since they are basically the same?
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I just got my prescription filled two weeks ago at CVS and it was just $427.00 here if I had to pay for it. Thank goodness my co pay is only $30.00 Will let you know if it goes up when I fill it again.
I would tell them no. I want have that problem because the NP told me for some reason my Dr. does not prescribe that one. I guess if I run into problems he will try one of the other expensive ones. ugg.
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