MIDDLE-AGED WOMEN 40-60ish
Comments
-
Sheila - That is really pretty.
0 -
Reesie and Eph happy Birthday!!!!!
0 -
Hi Ladies Good Morning remember me I have many test this week and want everything to turn out great. I see my surgeon next week for the next plan.
0 -
lylnniea--praying for your tests an appointment. Praying you'll find the perfect plan for you quickly.
0 -
Happy birthday to the birthday girls!!!
Lylnniea good luck with your tests!!
0 -
BarbaraA& Jo - Thank you for the wonderful cyber cakes, they were beautiful.
Elimar- Loved the pineapple and ginger cupcakes for my upset belly - thank you!
Thank you to everyone for my birthday wishes.
Reesie/Eph - HAPPY (BELATED) BIRTHDAY!!!!!
Valjean - I love what she says at the end of the show In Plain Sight - very moving, thanks for sharing.
lynnie - fingers, toes, arms and legs are crossed in addition to many prayers for your upcoming tests.......((hugs))
Tomorrow is the blood drive that my friend put together for me. She surprised me with it and it looks like we're going to have a great showing. It not only helps replace the blood I've used and will more than likely need again, it helps so many others in need of blood. She's been getting her place of business ready for guests and I think will even have food and drinks inside (away from the blood donor bus). I think we'll end up having a party / blood drive.......
I still can't figure out the picture. Do we know what it is yet?
0 -
Thanks all
0 -
My SAM-e experiment is over. Even tho' my stomach got used to it (once I started taking it with food) it did nothing for my FM pain, made no difference in my hot flashes either. It might have elevated my mood a tiny bit. I do know coming off of it gave me a migraine and a crying fit in a supermarket. That's always fun.
Anyway, I'll try some Effexor and report any effect that has on my hot flashes. Hopefully it will do the trick on my FM pain.
BTW, I read that there is "moderate" interaction between amitriptyline (Elavil) and Tamox. Not sure if it makes the Tamox. less effective or what? I know a couple of you are taking that & if you are interested in finding out for yourself, check out my fave source:
0 -
elimar - That is my favorite site to check drug interactions. My MO is aware that I am on amitriptyline and does not have a problem with it. He feels it is a good medication for me to be on for my nerve damage. I feel I have to trust him - he has not steered me wrong so far.
Also, I asked specifically about drug interactions with Tamox BEFORE I started it. I addressed my concern with the pain specialist and he also said there isn't a problem.
Thanks for your concern - we have to look out for each other.
0 -
elimar I asked my MO about the Elavil as well and he is Ok with me taking it. I am also on Celebrex and drugs.com says it intereacts but when I asked the MO he said it is OK. He has a couple of databases that he uses and that is what they check all my intereactions on. Never have asked what the names of their databases are. If I ever remember I may just ask what they use.
0 -
GREAT website!! BUT, every drug I entered had a warning!!!! I take about 10 prescriptions a day....sigh. Some of them twice a day! A total of 17 pills a day. Hard to keep track off even with my spage age Binford 3000 plastic pill day divider thingy.
0 -
I first heard the term "balancing act" in an ICU, where they generally flood all kinds of life-saving drugs into patients, drugs with duelling side effects, yet somehow making it work. Of course, the monitoring there is constant 24/7 hooked up to machines. So I guess the key to taking many meds is a) how they make you feel, in combination; and b) regular monitoring by a doctor.
jo, it seems like most docs are not too bothered when the interaction is only "moderate."
Sherryc, Celebrex is listed as having "major" interaction. That was the same as for the Cymbalta I was taking last year and it worried me enough to get off the Cymbalta. However, in the next post I am going to link to an article that basically says the jury is still out on the efficacy of Tamox. with the anti-depressant drugs.
0 -
This article is from the Susan Love website, based on recent discussions at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in Dec. 2010. It not only has some commentary about co-administration of Tamox. with an anti-depressant that depends on the CYP 2D6 enzyme to metabolize, but also has the current state of findings on the CYP 2D6 testing (the Tamox. utilization test) and what it means as far as recurrence odds. Have a read:
http://www.dslrf.org/breastcancer/content.asp?CATID=0&L2=4&L3=5&L4=0&PID=&sid=130&cid=416
Whenever I read inconclusive findings/conflicting information, I feel like I just renewed my membership in The Guinea Pig Club, don't you?
0 -
elimar - I clicked on the link but did not see an article pop up. Is there someplace else I have to go to once I am in the site?0
-
Crap. I closed the article page. Let me see if I can find it again and I'll just post the whole thing. It's not that long.0
-
Here is the entire article:
Paxil and Tamoxifen: A Bad Mix?
January 9, 2011
All too many women on tamoxifen are familiar with hot flashes—they are the most common side effect associated with this type of hormonal therapy.
Hope for treating these hot flashes appeared to be at hand when studies found that antidepressants, like paroxetine (brand name Paxil), reduced hot flashes by about 60 percent in women on tamoxifen (as well as in women going through menopause naturally or due to chemotherapy). But then, in December 2003, researchers reported in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute that the antidepressant Paxil might interfere with how the body metabolizes tamoxifen, reducing its effectiveness.
After it is taken, tamoxifen is converted into 4-hydroxy-tamoxifen by an enzyme called CYP2D6. (Enzymes are proteins that speed up chemical reactions in the body.) A series of studies suggested that certain antidepressants could inhibit this enzyme. The problem appeared to be due to a metabolite, that the researchers named endoxifen, which decreased when both Paxil and tamoxifen were taken. This decrease in endoxifen also appeared to relate to whether the women taking the medications had a certain CYP2D6 gene variation.
Because not all antidepressants affect the CYP2D6 enzyme in the same way, the findings from this research led doctors to begin suggesting to patients on tamoxifen to take Effexor instead of Paxil for hot flashes. Meanwhile, women who were on Paxil for depression were encouraged to talk to their psychiatrist about the possibility of switching to Effexor or another antidepressant that might not interfere as much or at all with tamoxifen.
This is why over the past seven years many women on tamoxifen have switched from Paxil to another antidepressant and why women have been encouraged to take Effexor and not Paxil to treat tamoxifen-related hot flashes.
Then at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in December 2010, new questions were raised about whether this problem was indeed occurring.
At the Symposium, researchers presented data from two studies on the CYP2D6 enzyme that brought some of their beliefs about the enzyme, tamoxifen and Paxil into question. These studies used data from two large clinical trials that had compared the effectiveness and safety of tamoxifen and an aromatase inhibitor. (Aromatase inhibitors are metabolized differently than tamoxifen, and are not affected by CYP2D6). These findings showed that women who had mutations in the genes that control the enzymes that metabolize tamoxifen were NOT more likely to have a recurrence, and that the scoring system that differentiates women into poor, intermediate, and extensive metabolizers did NOT predict recurrence. The studies also showed that women on tamoxifen who used antidepressants that were thought to inhibit CYP2D6 were NOT more likely to have a recurrence.So, where does this leave us? Clearly, more studies need to be done. An overview of the data presented at the Symposium noted that, since 2003, 178 articles have been published on tamoxifen resistance. Fourteen of these studies showed that CYPD2D6 was associated with breast cancer recurrence in women on tamoxifen, and 15 found that it was not. This suggests that, right now, there appears to be little reason to have CYP2D6 testing, since it is now not clear what the findings of this test really mean. It also means that you should not be concerned if you were on Paxil while you were on tamoxifen.
0 -
annettek, will be thinking of you tomorrow and hoping your reconstructive surgery goes well and that you will love the results.0
-
Elimar thanks for the article. MO and I had a long talk about me taking Celebrex. He is more concerned about me taking it long term and the effects it will have on my stomach since I already have stomach issues from time to time. I told him I cannot walk without limping unless I take the Celebrex so unless he has some other miracle drug to give me I was not going to stop it. He did not have any other suggestion so I am staying on it. The hip pain is too unberable otherwise.
0 -
Hello, Middles!
Long time no post! I just passed the third anniversary of one of the three options for a "cancerversary," which is my date of diagnosis, 6/18/08. My three-year anniversary of the removal of the globule of evil is in August, and three years since completion of radiation will be in November. I'll continue to enjoyTamoxification for another two and a half years - hey! That means I'm HALFWAY through it!
It's so frustrating how much they don't know about many medications. Does the fact that a medication reduces hot flashes imply that it tampers with the effects of an anti-hormonal or aromatase inhibitor? Benadryl worked great to help me sleep and kill hot flashes - and then I learned that this was likely because it interfered with the processing of my Tamoxifen.
I have still used it to treat an acute allergic event (friends who have you over and surprise you with their three cats), but I now take Melatonin at bedtime sometimes if I want a sleep aid. I've read that they don't even really know exactly how some anti-depressants work. As time goes on, they figure more things out, and as usual, the best we can do is try to make our own best choices...Read an interesting book for one of my book clubs: Promise Me, by Nancy Brinker, founder of Susan B. Komen for the Cure. Prior to reading this book, I was VERY "anti-pink," but getting an understanding of how the whole effort came to be and what they've done, I must say I loathe pink a little less. I still think there are companies who misuse it, but it's highly likely that all of that pinkness put me in a position where I was able to benefit from much of the research they funded. Reading about breast cancer treatments in the recent past as well as the DISTANT past was eye-opening. The book blends the story of the author's sister's experience with cancer with the history of breast cancer and treatments and the author's personal story. In my book club of 21 women, it turns out that four of us have some personal experience with breast cancer. Two of us had smallish tumors treated with lumpectomy and radiation and then Tamoxifen, one had a father who had breast cancer (so she's under surveillance), and the fourth had a mastectomy 15 years ago, followed by Tamoxifen and then an AI. (This doesn't include the number of women who have probably had biopsies or "wait and see" experiences with abnormalities that weren't cancer.) The woman who had it 15 years ago found the book to be almost too difficult to read... Although I'm glad I read it, I recommend having a follow-up book you can read immediately after to get your mind off of breast cancer. We next read "The Hunger Games." That did the trick!
Coleen
0 -
Coleen-SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good to see you! Glad that you are surviving & have passed the 1/2 way point! Any recent band trips or are those all done?
0 -
Hey Kleenex! Since we missed your Dx cancerversary, remind me again in Aug. and I'll see if I can't observe the "removal date" with some happy dancing.
I never felt "anti-pink." Pinktober doesn't bother me either. Here's why: Before there can be an action, there has to be a thought. So I am pro-"awareness" in all its pink glory. A good number of public service campaigns have relied on excess and have been successful in implementing good health and safety. Seat belts, forest fire prevention, litter, Frito Bandito (o.k., not that last one so much.)
0 -
I don't have a problem with the pink stuff either. What I do mind is when it is abused or there is overkill. I have received a few "pink" gifts from close friends and really appreciate the thought but don't giive me the stuff just because I had BC.
0 -
Kleenex - must be a great feeling being halfway through the tamoxifen. I don't know what to think about hot flashes vs no hot flashes. I suppose I went through menopause, but never had a hot flash then, either - subsequently, I have never had a hot flash on tamoxifen. I'm not sure if it's a relevant indicator or not. I've had other (small) SEs, but I've never been susceptible to SEs of any sort anyway. But, for what it's worth, my onc is running that tamoxifen metabolizer test on me. I'll let y'all know how it turns out, but I suspect it will show that I'm an extensive metabolizer - no hot flashes and all.
That book, "Promise Me", sounds very interesting - I will check it out. I feel like my understanding of the "pink" movement is pretty vague; I'm almost afraid of how much it may move me. I'm on the waiting list at my library for "The Emperor of all Maladies". Such a huge, expensive book - not sure I want to own it or ever refer to it again, but I'm looking forward to reading it. I'll make sure I have a light book to read after both of these books - good advice!
Speaking of awareness campaigns - have you seen those anti-meth ads? I don't know if they run them in your state, but they freak the kids out here - way to go! They certainly freak me out!
0 -
Happy BELATED birthday to Eph and Reesie...this old world is a better place with you guys in it:)
Thanks so much Elimar...getting nervous and hyper...wait, come to think of it, I am ALWAYS nervous and hyper. I am excited happy and sad about tomorrow....still trying to decide if I will let hubby take me or not....things to ponder...i don't wanna wear my big girl panties. hahahaha The only thing I have decided upon is that I know the difference between need and want. And that is not a small thing to understand. I don't need, but I still want....at least I think I do. How is that for flip flopping away?
Lynn- still sending thoughts of nothing but good results for you this week - big hugs
0 -
annette-is your avatar you? I think we've seen it before the flying goat perhaps. Tomorrow-it's only a day away & I will have on my big girl panties in your honor! Fly, be free, be happy!
0 -
annette - Same question that Joni asked. Is that you in the avatar? Almost did not see it - so used to seeing the flying goat.
0 -
Coleen you give me hope. So glad you are 1/2 way finished.
0 -
it is me....looking into my Iphone this evening- I let the goat go play for awhile...will try and get a better pic when I am not quite so loony looking:) Funny, I have a zillion pictures of my boobs on the pic forum but hard pressed for one of my face...when it comes to me, my face and cameras i gots issues, i tell you, i gots issues....:)
K..i am gonna go take one last slug of my diet coke with lime even though it is 12:03am and all food and drink was to stop at midnight...I am such a rebel, indeed.
Seems dumb with surgery not scheduled until noon, my reasoning being if it was at 6 as usual, they give same instructions..no food or drink after midnight...sigh I will follow the rules....i am not hungry or thirsty but when I know I CAN'T do something I wanna....such is the human condition:)
night-maybe not, I might be back and ramble some more
0 -
{{{{{annette}}}}}
0 -
You'd think I would learn - no matter how tired I am when I go to bed if I don't take something I'm going to be awake at three in the morning. Ugh, now it's too late.
Thinking of you annette and lynn.
Congrats Coleen.
My BS had me get a mammo on my "good" breast so when I get the bmx she can direct pathology where to look for trouble spots. Why do the docs have to make you so nuts? It took 2 1/2 hours - three retakes and an ultrasound making me worry about what he found now only to have him come in and say he only saw one small spot of concern. Which is good since there were more pre-chemo.
Oh well at least he was nice enough to tell me and not make me wait for BS.0
