Hot Flash Forum!
Comments
-
Flwarrior go to drugs.com and you can put in tamoxifen and it will give you a whole list of things.
Omaz I am also so tired of hot flashes
When I first went on Tammi I had horrible hot flashes and could not sleep. I thought I cannot handle 5 years of this. Then they went a way and I thought great. Then they came back for a couple of weeks and then stopped again. Now they are back. It has been a week and a half and I am exhausted. Took an Ambien CR 12.5mg last night and slept for 6 1/2 hours ( my normal is a a good 8 hours) until the hot flashes decided to visit and then I never went back to sleep. I am so tired that I am actually nauseated today. I am going to do the Ambien again tonight but go to bed even earlier and see if I can feel better.
0 -
Is Ambien a prescription?
0 -
Omaz yes it comes in regular ambien or ambier cr which is time released. There is also lunesta and if you go their website they have a program you can sign up for that will pay $50 a month towards your prescription. so if your insurance has you pay $50 or less you get it for free and it is good for 1 year (12 refills). I am going to try my lunesta tonight to see if I sleep any better.
0 -
SAS: LOL!! Happy to help when I can!
SHERRY: yes, drugs.com is great for interactions. (http://www.drugs.com/drug_interactions.html)
HILL: You are right about the Ambien. The regular strength is great if you fall asleep fine but then wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep. The longer-acting Ambien is good for getting to sleep and staying to sleep.
If you take Ambien several nights in a row and then skip a night, you can have rebound dreaming... very vivid dreams and not good sleep. (Common SE)
0 -
I am so with you all on the hot flashes. I had them for a bit off and on before bc diagnosis, and they were bad then, but would only last a few days and go away. Then, bmx and thrown into chemopause and they are round the clock. I tried catapres, no results, vitamin e, no results, no on pristiq, which may help a bit in their intensity, but not in fewer. I have at least three an hour during the day, and some of them are awful.
I am thinking of going to the cold cap board and just wearing those round the clock. LOL
Here are a couple of things that help me at night. I have a couple of those thermal wrap things that you can also put in the freezer. I keep it in the freezer during the day and then sleep on it at night. It is a huge help. Especially because I always get to sleep with it, and then stay asleep.
I keep the fan on also, which helps, although I detest having wind blow on me at night. I hate the hot flashes worse. LOL
I haven't found anything to help with daytime flashes. Not exercise either.
AND....I am not giving up organic fat-free milk. I don't drink that much of it, and I find it hard to believe that for the hundreds of years we have been drinking milk, that it really can cause breast cancer. The same with the study that says tall people might be more susceptible. I will need to see a lot more research to buy that one.
If we follow every study's findings, there would be nothing to eat.
My oncologist, who is Indian, noted the other day that years ago, they used coconut oil in cooking for tons of stuff, then it came out that it was bad. Now, they have proven a lot of that wrong and it is good for you. Although you are supposed to use the organic one and not the processed stuff. Some things I think make sense, especially organic and significantly limiting sugar, and some things need more proof for me before I give it up totally. I have even cut back on red wine, and I hate doing that! LOL
0 -
I found that the generic ambien (zolpidem) made me nauseous.I took the name brand when they first came out and when I switched I did not like the next morning.
I asked today about the name brand and a 30 day prescription was $245! My insurance will not pay anything; they require you to buy generic.
Oh well, I don't take them often so guess the generic will have to do.
0 -
On the Milk thing---------I googled "milk and risks" It would take days of reading and sifting the articles. We have already read the articles about milking while pregnant. Last article I read was about Two hormones that Monsanto adds for growth which I couldn't determine yet, if it 's been identified in the milk. That would require much more searching. But if it were outlawed Monsanto would loose billions.
Ganmaa was coming out with a book on Obesity. Based on his writings so far , he has made this his life's work.
It triggered a long ago memory from around 1981-82. I thought I was having a problem with milk and cut it out-------Lost 24lbs. without changing anything else in my diet. But like I said earlier I'm a milkoholic. I went back to it. Over time I gained that weight back, but didn't put the two together.
When I made rice milk, I added a touch of sugar and vanilla. Mom actually preferred it plain. It was really cheap too. I could make 2 liters for pennies(I did calculate it at one time). I think I used two bags for each 2 liter brew. I'd remake every third and sometimes I think 4th day. Memory bad. It really reduced her diarrhea. Thought of doing it b/c rice is usually one of babies first foods. She was sent home from the hospital with the diarrhea> we went through 88 diapers/week the first 2-3 weeks. Hence problem solving to reduce it. Once I started her on the rice milk, major change, and we kept going forward until it stopped. The Questran was stopped fairly quick. It's for reducing cholesterol, but it's s.e was to stop diarrhea. But it reduced her cholesterol down to 89. So, had to stop it. Cholesterol too high does bad things, but too low, cell walls get leaky, myelin protection of the nervous system gets screwed up and other things I forget.
I won't post any more about this b/c it takes away from what we are working on. I 'm thinking about doing a thread on it. I'm just terribly disappointed that once again my government has not protected us from a danger that they new existed. So, what we all can do is work towards protecting ourselves and our families. This is as bad as the recent legislation that allows the addition of Aspartame to many food products. Aspartames hx for causing problems isn't good either. Bummer, shall we survive our government.
0 -
OMG where everybody go? Did I bum everybody out?
0 -
I'm here but getting ready for bed. Who is Ganmaa?
0 -
Maybe tonight I will sleep for 4 hours in a row. It IS possible, I AM hopeful!!! Wicked bunch of hot flashes today. I just can't see the point of hot flashes. They make no sense to me. Hope everyone is doing A-ok, keeping dry and cool - or mostly! No SAS you didn't bum me out (c:0
-
Ranasus - I was just put on Arimedex. My Onc warned me that I might experience hot flashes with this but I think my prozac is keeping them away. Haven't had a hot flash now for 4 days. I'm happy.
I've switched to Coconut Milk for serial and baking. Love it!!
Kat
0 -
I used vanilla almond milk this morning. Didn't notice any difference.
0 -
Glad everybody here--- whew
Fluff queen ---Ganmaa is the fella that is writing so much about the hormones in milk. The first article we read of his, I have no memory how we first contacted it. It was a 2006 article is some posts back. I checked to see what else he had written and he has continued researching /lecturing/ and has written a book on his findings related to obesity and the hormones we are exposed to. I don't know if it's published yet b/c he referred to it in the web site of his, dated 2010 ,and said it would be available this year.
Kay I'm continuing with the rice milk------it's okay., but as any "oholic" would say I miss my milk LOL
0 -
Has anyone gone into flash mode without sweating? It happened to me on my return trip from seeing ChrissyB in south Florida. Lasted from Sunday till maybe Thursday. Each day decreasing. I was concerned about Heatstroke. SUN & MON intense---decreased from there. Cooled off either in shower or pool. This is a first. Only sun exposure was thru the window during the drive. The internal heat was intense , skin temp high, no sweat, any ideas?
0 -
I have more hot flashes that do not have sweat. I usually get sweaty during a hot flash when it's hot and humid. Not always though. Just like everything else, there are no answers
0 -
I hardly ever break out in a sweat. I have never been much of a sweat-er, and I guess my hot flashes haven't changed this. One day last week I started to feel damp, but otherwise I just have this radiating heat all over.
0 -
okay I can worry less. Thanks.sas
0 -
I get the hot flashes with the radiating heat. Sometimes I get kinda clammy, almost sweaty and other times stay dry just get really HOT. I have not had a "soaker" yet, like the ones I have read about. So I wonder if what I have experienced is the thing that some of the ladies call "warm flushes as opposed to hot flashes"? I also do not have any hot flash/pee correlation that seems so common. Mine are more often triggered by eating especially around dinner time. Anyone else find eating is a trigger?
0 -
I haven't noticed that eating is a trigger, but coffee, red wine and licorice all seem to increase the frequency of my flashes.
0 -
sas-thanks for the update on Ganmaa. When I first read it, Ithought somebody just mispelled Grandma! LOL
0 -
The hot flashes are not letting up. usually when I get them they last about a week maybe week and a half and they go away. this has been a good two weeks and I am having them 24/7. Oh and I do not sweat with mine, but I am not much of a sweater anyway. I might get a few beads on my upper lip but that is about it. I don't understand why they are getting worse this time around. I am having to take lunesta just so I can sleep through the light ones. And at night it does trigger having to go pee. Don't understand that.
0 -
Sherry-welcome to my life. Hot flashes 24/7. This summer, I would be drenched. Fortunately the cooler weather has helped lower the intensity some, but my husband always know when they are happening. My face is flushed, skin is hot to the touch. He laughed at me yesterday morning as we had the window open during the night. I was freezing in the morning and told him I wasn't getting out of bed until a hot flash warmed me up. Took about 15 minutes.
Mine trigger when I get up to pee also. Also, if I roll over to my left side....immediate flash. Weird.
They average two to four an hour sometimes. The other night, I didn't have any and then couldn't get to sleep all night. go figure.
0 -
fluffqueen mine are when I roll over to the right. I always seem to wake up and have to roll over and take the covers off. I was so hoping that this would pass like the others but don't know.
0 -
I look at all our posts and I think of the survey we want to do, and it seems a bit overwhelming. How do you make a questionnaire that will cover all these diverse symptoms. Rolling right, rolling left, upside , downside , inside, outside. Dr Zeus help us. Fluff queen "not getting out of bed until a hotflash warmed you up" LOL. An easy out would be to call Freedman at Wayne State and inviting him to do it. The Mods said that as long as BCO was the identified resource of the survey, and they saw the questions before hand, how we did it would be okay.
Is this flashing without sweating a known thing? This heat change without sweating is new to me. Never even conceived sweating was not involved in all flashing. Has anyone seen it in print? I would agree with Fluff that it would be quite convenient in cold weather. It's hotter than wet flashing, any opinions on that?. For me it's a heat that is constant, then changing in intensity. And the side of my body next to couch or bed gets much hotter. A bit of headache too? Since the heat doesn't seem to go away, I'm not chilling like I was. Similar to anyone? May be I'm sick and don't know it LOL? It does feel like when I had a 104.8 temp after first and only chemo. May be the heat will fry any little cancer cells floating around. At least that would be a trade off for the bother. Couldn't find any working thermometers, poo.
I guess we have some new language and lets abbreviate it ,so ,it's not so long to write------Dry Flashing will be flashing without sweating---DF, Wet Flashing will be flashing with sweating---WF.
0 -
When I had my tissue expanders replaced in August, 3 months after my infection, I was taking my temperature every time I had a hot flash just to make sure it wasn't a fever. Weird that I can be dripping with sweat, hot skin, and my body temperature is normal. The first time I saw my PS after reinsertion, and I had the rash around the expanders, he asked if I had any fever. I told him no, and that I carry a thermometer with me and check my temp every time I have a hot flash to make sure. He just burst out laughing. Then, he noted that given my last infection when I barely had a fever every and they thought it was due to herceptin, and then suddenly I have pseudomonas, maybe it was a good thing I was doing that.
With the cool weather I haven't had sweating so much, other than on my face. Upper lip will get sweaty or chin area. But over the summer, everything would be wet.
OH...the leather seats in the car. If I start to have a hot flash, I cant have them against my skin. Really makes me sweat.
0 -
I rarely sweat with the flashes; just when my hair is down on the back of my neck. But my skin gets super hot. Last night I noticed that the flash came AFTER I got up to pee and went back to bed. This really is a case of which came first, the chicken or the egg. (Or in our case, the peeing or the flashing?) I was positive I woke from the flash then realized I had to pee. But last 2 nights, opposite happened.
Off to see how it works tonight!
0 -
I get dozens of hot flashes a day/night and have for about 3 years. Anastrozole magnified the discomfort probably double. This is controversial, but I take gelatinized maca root. It completely relieved the sexual pain and dryness "down under" (unrelieved by ANY other product, and I tried them all) and cut the flashes in half. My oncologist is Not Thrilled but I figure why prolong my life if the living isn't fun? If you try it, be aware that some say maca mimics estrogen. Perhaps it will increase my chances of recurrence, but it has probably saved my marriage.
0 -
Hi: Most of my over a decade hot flashes were prior to BC so mine were not chemically induced though they were just as bad or worse than you all describe. I too have the wakeup/pee/flash correlation. Mine have actually improved on the Anastrozole. Most women that experience hot flashes as a part of menopause do eventually get over them or at least improve dramatically. Seeing as I have had mine over a decade I attribute the improvement by Anastrozole to pushing me out the other end. In the early days I could soak the bed but now I feel clammy but no longer drench. In the early days, anything with a temp change caused a flash. Sip of cold drink, hot drink, hair dryer, shower, walking by an A/C or heater vent....
I bought the ChillowPlus from hearing about it on BCO. So here is my assessment. Overall I think I am sleeping better. I have an aversion to drugs and so the only ones I take are blood pressure meds by the handfuls (still not controlled) and the Anastrozole. The ChillowPlus generally holds temperature and one thing I have discovered is that if you hot flash a lot or are hot enough over a period of time, you can actually turn one of these things into a heating pad. LOL All in all I do like it. Might eventually have to have two so that if it is a really bad night and it turns into a heating pad, I can switch it out. I am also prone to migraine and I think I will like it for that too in combination with the gel pack eye masks that I keep in the freezer.
Has anyone experienced this? I have found over my decade of this that contrary to what you might think, I think I actually have far less likelihood of body odor. I have surmised that the heat is so hot and so often that it is frying/boiling any bacteria? Anyone else notice this??
Barb
0 -
Wow...so glad to have found this forum. But not happy I have to "join". I had been doing pretty well dealing with my hot flash/flushes till about two weeks ago. And I can't take it!!!! I am on 600 mg of neurontin which had seemed to help for the past year...now I get no relief from it. I know my onc is going to say to up my dosage but I am so tired of pills and medicines I think I would rather eliminate it all together. Been dealing with lyme disease for eighteen years so I have sort of had my fill of prescriptions. The less I can put in my body the happier I am. But.....I have started getting nauseous before and during the flash, they seem to roll right into the next one. I don't get the sweats but I sure do feel like I am. I have noticed others post about body temperature....I typically run on the low side....when I hit 98.6 I know I'm coming down with something. For some reason the other day I took out the thermometer convinced I was burning up.....nope, 97.3! Weird.. And the joint pain has gotten terrible...having difficulty typing this right now. Though I know much of it is lyme related...this finger pain is new and I am convinced it is the tamoxifen. So....confused as to whether or not to "up" the neurontin since it did help with some of the lyme issues or stop it and hope for the best dealing with these hot flashes.
0 -
Starak I have noticed that I have less body odor. This came with menopause, not BC. I chalked it up to having less hormones. I have substituted deodorant for my favorite scent.0
