Arimidex
Comments
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I read (somewhere) that Arimidex metabolizes best on an empty stomach and that acid type foods should not be taken around that time. I think it was on a US (maybe California) study that analyzed why women stopped taking Arimidex and what their side effects were.
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I take all my supplements at night, don't split up my calcium but know I should. Also take one Aleve at night, sleep better with it. Take Arimidex first thing in the AM on empty tummy. It's the only thing I take in the AM. I hope it is working! Who knows.
pam
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Theresa~ Thanks so much for your intimate sharing ..It made my sharing all worthwhile.I cried when I read what your wrote!! Bless your husband. How wonderful a man can share his emotions so openly! It so expresses his love for you. I am so happy for the two of you!
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Well, I think I will just take the Armidex in the morning and bring the calcium chew that I usually take at that time to work, and eat it on my break at 10:00. Give the armidex a head start! (I hope coffee doesn't interfer with it, 'cause there is no way I'm giving up that morning cup of coffee!!). Carole, I look for sales at the grocery store and buy boxes of frozen fish fillets, a brand called 'No Name'. There are four big fillets in a box, salmon, tipalia etc. with differents sauces like barbecue, oriental etc. They are very good. I also buy bags of 'Aqua Star Sweet Chili Shrimp' (frozen food section); heat the shrimp on the stove according to directions, dump in a bunch of vegetables and stir fry that in with the shrimp for a couple minutes, and serve over rice. YUMMY. The shrimp is a little spendy, but I watch for sales on it too. O.K. this is making me hungry, I'm going to sign off and find something to eat
. Take care, everyone. Ruth0 -
Sharlene,
I am very lucky to be married to a wonderful man. My diagnosis scared him more than me. His mother passed away at he age of 50 from Lung cancer...before pain management or hospice care.(1978) He now knows there are survivors.
It is so wonderful to have the closeness back. Thanks again!
Teresa
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Interesting to think about the number of variations for taking the same med and similar supplements! Pam, it would never occur to me to take supplements at night. Isn't that funny?
Ruthbru, fresh shrimp are available here year round. During the main shrimping seasons, a local man sells shrimp out of big coolers. They're very fresh. You can tell because when shrimp are newly caught, their heads are firmly attached to their bodies. I usually buy 10 or 20 lbs for the freezer. You take the heads off and put the shrimp in freezer bags with enough water to cover them. They're as good as fresh when you cook them. Dh is cooking shrimp tonight for our dinner, a Rachel Ray recipe.
Hope everyone is enjoying today. I'm off to the kitchen to put the breadmaker to work. I've been making my own bread this winter. It tastes so much better than the bought bread.
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Carole,
i wish I could just snell your bread cooking!
pam
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Yummy Carole, I can smell it too! I've toyed with the idea of a bread machine but it would probably just end up on the counter taking up space with the rest of my handy appliances. Unfortunately I would not be able to do shrimp that fresh because I'm a big wuss and would not be able to touch them with the head on. Funny you did not think about taking supplements at night. That is my first thought when taking meds. I figure if they are going to upset my tummy it would be best at night and maybe I would sleep through it. Can't let it mess up my day, right?
Night folks.
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More on Vitamin D ..my regular doctor who ..how lucky can I be ..is my cousin>>> checked Vitamin D level when she did my annual blood work after my BC diagnosis.It was low..I took the bolus of 50,000 U per week and after couple months it was normal that was a year ago.This year .I saw my BS who read all reports of tests Nancy did for 2009 physical and she said it ...Vit D...was on the low end of normal and to take 2000 mg per day...Cousin agred with her so I do take it now!! Oh my BS is now my onc just to oversee my remaining yrs on arimidex..Now she ,unlike my onc, does cancer marker test when I have my blood drawn> Do any of you have that done..? TY God mine was normal! BS is also a stickler for annual bone density test! Hope this is not too confusing!
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I, like patoo, would have a hard time plunking the heads off shrimp! If you are home alone, don't want to cook, and want to eat some fish, Lean Cusine has a "Parmeson Encrusted Fish" entree that is pretty good. I wouldn't dare make homemade bread, because I would eat the whole loaf in one sitting!!! Fresh, hot bread with the butter melting on it.....droll!! My oncologist does a tumor marker test when I go see him every six months (very scary), and I also get a yearly bone density test. I have never had the vitamin D level checked, so will put it on my list of things to ask about when I go in; which won't be until summer, since I 'passed' my recheck in December . My calcium chews also have vitamin D, so I'm not overly worried about it. Now I will sign off and dream of BREAD! 0
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lakewoman,
Interesting that you have an onc and a BS and you chose to use the BS as an onc. I say "interesting" because I'm in a similar position.
When I was diagnosed last February, I immediately saw an onc (even before my receptor reports were in) because I thought "Hey, I have breast cancer, I need an oncologist". My BS (who hates my onc, but that's another long story) said that he would monitor me every three months. So far, he's done that. His nurse told me that he does a CA 2529 (??) blood test once a year.
I have also seen the onc every few months, the last time being last week. Every time I see him, I ask about scans or blood work to detect if my levels are normal or not. Every time he says that they (his practice) don't do this. Last week he said that they wait until the patient presents with symptoms before they do scans or blood work. Well, that really ticked me off. So now, I'm thinking maybe I should find another onc or maybe just rely on the BS who would be very happy seeing me every three months. I didn't have chemo so the onc really did (and still does) very little for me. The BS claims he is a "surgical oncologist" but who knows how accurate that statement is.
Have you dropped the onc totally? Just curious about your decision to use the BS as an onc
Oh yes ... I'm on Arimidex (approaching my 11 month anniversary) too.
Thanks.
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sunflowers,
I may have asked you before... did you do chemo? My oncotype score was 27 but all my doctors said no chemo. I am 99% ER+ so now on Arimidex and did rads x 36. Scares me to have skipped chemo as most everyone I read with as high a score as I had did do chemo. I am now 63, 62 at DX so maybe that factored in. Also low mitosis score and I guess chemo likes fast dividing cells.
pam
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I also go to Dana Farber; I find that my ONC does very little testing and I do trust him. Sue
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The last test I had was for Vit D levels which are in the normal range. I still see my onc every 4 to 6 months until my 5 yrs are up, do not see my rad onc. and mammos once a year now and of course PCP every 6 months because I have cholestoral and tyroid issues. I also feel myself up once a month, LOL. BSE.
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sunflowers,
We have had, for us, bitter cold... 24F yesterday AM! But the sun is shining brightly today and warming up as the day progresses, probably 55 today. And if you are in the sun it is quite nice. We went to a funeral Saturday and there was actual sleet in the air. Somehow seemed appropriate.
Do you live near Stockbridge (is that right - Rockwell's home)? We were there once in October and it began to snow! We huddled around the chicken rotisserie in the general store to warm up
Beautiful country. It's so important to have confidence in your treatment plan. DF is kind of like the Taj Mahal of cancer care. In spite of living in a small town part of Florida I feel very fortunate that my doctors have all been young and progressive with apparently state of the art procedures. Chemo vs no chemo has been my only doubt and since everyone agreed I am (should be) glad to have passed on it.
Hope you can stay warm!
pam
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Ruthbru, you're right about the bread. I would bake it and sit right down and eat the whole thing. Thanks for bringing me back to my senses!
My med onc does bloodwork each time which is every 3 months although I suppose I could have my PCP or BS do it but I like having the results in the same place as the original file. I wonder what's the point of seeing the onc if they don't do anything? That's why i stopped going to rad onc. If I'm not having rads and no problems with healing or se's, why do I need to see him? My PCP can also order the yearly mammo so until I need a BS, why go? Plumbing has been gone so don't need to see a GYN.
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Hey twin!
I agree about the BS but since my BC was not found by a lump but because of mammo and U/S I wonder if I need BS. If my yearly mammo shows something awry then, yes, I would see BS over PCP for sure. Do you think if there were to be a lump that BS might feel it where PCP may not? I guess that's why I stay with med onc for Arimidex and bloodwork because he is "supposed" to be the expert in that area.
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Thanks for all the replies. I feel a little bit better now that I learn that a reputable place like DF subscribes to the same protocol.
There was more to last week's conversation with my onc that I neglected to post last night. He added that they "used to do blood work and scans" routinely (I think that's the word he used) but they found it was a lot of work to get these tests justified (and paid for) by the insurance companies if the patient had no symptoms. So now, he added, they only do those tests if the patient presents with symptoms. I think that's the part that got to me.
I think I felt, at the beginning, that two heads were better than one (insofar as docs go). That's the reason I continued to go the onc and the BS. The BS runs a "one stop shopping" place for breast care. He does mammos, ultrasounds, biopsies etc., all in his office (and, of course, surgery in the OR) so there's some benefit to continue seeing him. He was the one who found the tumor on a six month mammo last February.
Still mulling over my next move. Thanks to all.
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Ah, yes. Follow-up care. Such a dilemma...
I was dx'd and treated at an "NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center," and they pretty much follow the NCCN guidelines. This is a big university hospital in the southeastern U.S., and both my med onco and BS (a surgical onco) have been on the NCCN panels that came up with the guidelines. (I guess it makes sense that they'd follow those guidelines, eh?)
Anyway, my med onco does not do routine scans, either, as follow-up for women with Stage I BC. She has told me the same thing I've read in the NCCN guidelines and elsewhere: doing PET and CT and bone (mets, not DEXA) scans in women with early-stage BC is not helpful. Almost all the results will be negative. There will be some positives, but most of those will be false-positives necessitating more procedures and perhaps biopsies. (Bone or liver biopsies? Ouch!) Scans are done when we report symptoms, or when the results of the blood work come back odd (e.g., high liver enzymes). The reason is, there is no evidence that women with mets will live any longer if their mets are detected by routine scans, rather than when symptoms appear. The timeline of the dx shifts, so you live knowing that you're Stage IV for a longer time; but the outcome doesn't. I guess that means the treatments for mets don't extend our lives all that much after all...
Blood work? My med onco was doing blood work (liver enzymes, basic stuff) every 6 months or so; now it's once a year. My local PCP does the same tests to monitor my BP and cholesterol meds; so my med onco accepts my PCP's lab results and vice versa. I also have another doc -- an osteoporosis specialist -- to whom my med onco sent me a year ago. I have an odd problem with loss of calcium in my urine ("idiopathic hypercalciuria"), which was dx'd on a hunch. So, I'm on a med for that, and the osteo doc does blood work occasionally; and she orders my DEXA bone density scans, which my med onco would be doing otherwise. All the docs except the PCP are at that same cancer center, so everybody shares the results.
I see my BS once a year for a mammogram on my good side and a clinical recheck. She is officially my "breast doc" -- she's a surgical onco in the center's "Breast Health Center"; and she said I can continue to go there for mammos and routine exams, well, ... apparently forever. She would order scans if she, or the mammogram, or I, found anything unusual. They are developing a long-term follow-up program for cancer survivors (after 5 yrs), and I can participate in that once I reach that point.
My local GYN (I have a new one now, to replace the one who said not to worry because my tumor was just fibrocystic tissue and my mammogram was "clean") is restricted to problems from the waist down. He does a breast exam but it's a sorry excuse for one -- way too quick. He couldn't detect a shooter marble if I stuck one in there. I let my med onco and BS check out my boob and mast side; they do a great job.
Oh -- tumor markers. Nada. Not necessary (or useful) for follow-up in early-stage BC, according to my docs and the NCCN guidelines. My med onco ordered a CA-125 by accident one time, when she meant to check "25-OH Vitamin D"; and my CA-125 was normal. Good thing -- it has nothing to do with BC; it's for ovarian cancer and colon cancer.
otter
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Hi, Ladies,
I am new to this thread. I've been taking arimidex for about a year and a half now, and the pain just keeps getting worse. Not just pain at the joints, but also along the bones. Should I worry about mets? I see my ONC again in 1 month, and I'm trying to make it till then. In the meantime, I am living on large doses of ibuprofen. Anyone have a similar experience on arimidex? Anyone postmenopausal switch from arimidex to tamoxifen? If so, did it help?
Janet
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otter
About the efficacity of AI's I remember reading I think from Edge on another website that cruciferous vegetables are interfering with it. I could be wrong I read that a long time ago, maybe it was not interference with AI but another med but that's all I remember.
carolehalston
I don't think efficacity of AI's goes with side effects (my humble opinion) I think it could go with our treshold of pain or how much estrogens in our system we had before starting them.0 -
cw89134
In answer to your question..I have my BS as onc ,,BECAUSE my onc got ovarian cancer while I was her patient..My cousin doc Nancy good friend of hers..Well onc did hysterectomy..chemo AND peritonial chemo!..My cousin swore me to secrecy but I knew she(onc) knew I knew,!,The day ,,last June ,,my last visit with her ..as she just gotten married ,,age 50..and quit practice and moved to WA..Well she walked in to see me without wig ..I said you sure are a good advertisement for this place..she laughed we hugged..We talked about the oncs in with her.. I wanted neither of them both men...I heard about them and knew their demeanor and mine would not match.I did not tell her that .I asked her if Dr T my BS could follow me on arimidex ,She said she would be just fine..and that she ..Dr T.. had other patients who now go to just her..Actually other then liking my onc there really was no need for both ,,Dr T is so good with q 4months followups..she was a general surgeon who now does just BC and colonoscopies ,,yepper even had her do mine last spring..She is a stickler for follow up VIT D bone density and the CA marker...We talked and she agreed if ever needed I could go to an ocologist in a city about 90 miles from here she would refer me..I even know which one I would have BUT I am NOT going to need one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Right sisters??? We just need to keep communicating and keep the positive energy flowing ..Bless you all friends! oh ps my oncotype DX was 12 no chemo or radiation.
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otter,
Thanks for the tip on the NCCN guidelines. I've downloaded the BC guidelines. Now all I need to do is find the time to read and understand them! I'm a programmer so I do understand flowcharts but, alas, I have no MD degree
.lakewoman,
Thanks for the explanation of your decision process in moving from your onc to your BS. My situation is complicated by the fact that my onc and my BS dislike each other intensely. Of course, I know that I am the patient but personalities and egos do get in the way at times.
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To all, so much great info here, thank you. Dana Farber really takes a very laid back approach to everything in my opinion, but I am kind of nutsy about medical stuff anyway.
LAKEWOMAN, we are both RNs! How cool. Maybe you should explain what the "q" means...haha
Have a great day everyone, It is 10 in MA today, Sue
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I live in a rural area and we have about 4 surgeons for the whole county, and one oncologist unless one wants to travel far and wide. At present, I'm seeing the oncology nurse practitioner at the only oncology office and what a huge difference it has made. She's personable, kind, patient and understands the 100 levels of menopause with Arimidex. I go to see her once every 4 months unless something changes, have blood tests for tumor markers (and I told her not to tell me anything I don't need to know), as a retired RN, I want to keep it simple.
So far I've not been successful getting off the anti depressant which is tough since we don't at present have health insurance but I think I can get something reasonable from Canada (I don't do that well with the generics). I guess what is hard for me is to realize that I have drug induced depression and I just need to go along to get along. I've priced Arimidex from the local pharmacies and the cost is between 421 to 475 for one month's worth. Something is wrong with that picture. I'm not sure if they get the raw ingredients from a rare tree in the Amazonian jungle and which can only be harvested by the light of full moon, or something equally exotic.
I e-mail President Obama pretty regularly so I think I share the cost of Arimidex with him or whoever reads the e-mails (side effects are free of course)
you ladies have a lovely day
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JO - Your dx and mine sound the same. Thank heavens for mammograms. It is suppose to be in the 50's the end of the week. Come on Friday!! The more I exercise the less sleep I need and the aches and pains are less.
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Funny SUE RN!!!! ''q" means every !
sorry about that!!!
Casaredanda...I was on antidepressants for hotflashes ,,Way back then I was into the libido thing,,,tryiing to go off them for that reason....I had insominia getting off them ,,but mine.. effexor was in capsule form with beads inside HOW Is that SUE for non medical definition???hahaha! I got off them by pouring out said beads a few at a time ..made it easier as it was sort of a placebo effect FOR ME as I was still taking the capsule!!!!
CW AS long as you don't mind having 'dualing docs ' that is up to you ..Otherwise select the one who does the most for you ! And if you ever need another..... go to one who likes the one you selected!
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LAKEWOMAN, I knew what "q" meant. I hate when I write to friends and try all the nursey abbreviations.......ya know, with is a "C" w a line over it. I give myself away all the time.
Hey, btw, how's the hunting going and the "lab"? Sue
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No problem for me to yank those shrimp heads off! A little twist and pull. Presto. Headless shrimp! I'd like for you ladies to attend a south Louisiana crawfish boil. You'd most likely be grossed out. The crawfish are alive when they're dumped into a cauldron of boiling water seasoned with red pepper and salt and bulbs of garlic and splashes of "crab boil" liquid. By the time they're ready to eat, they're boiled-lobster red. The whole potful is dumped on an outdoors table. People gang around. They pick up a crawfish, yank off the head and then suck the head. Drop it and peel the crawfish tail. Yum. Yum.
I was really nervous about my oncotype score as I waited for the results. Especially since my tumor was Grade 3, aggressive. But my score was 9, much to my relief. If it had been in the 20's, Pam, my BS would have recommended 4 treatments of chemo. I'm 66. Different drs. Different treatments. My dr. might be overly aggressive. I didn't have rads because I opted for BMX.
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lakewoman,
"Dueling docs" -- that's a good one.
I'm still thinking about what to do about the onc situation. My next appointment with the BS is 3/31, at which time he will do the second post treatment mammo. My next appointment with the onc is in July so I have a while to make up my mind.
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