For Arimidex (Anastrozole) users, new, past, and ongoing
Comments
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I do not have out of pocket expenses not as on Medicare but do have a ton of perscriptions. But had a ton of out of pocket during treatment, company had a minimal plan but that is better even though I go into the donut hole each year
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Peggy.....my feeling would be "if you don't know anything about cancer, or its treatments, knowing everyone is not the same then in clear language............Shut up......say nothing.......
Chemo is not easy....no doubt.......but I had some idiot say to me........well at least you don't have to have Chemo, and all you will do is take a pill everyday..........REALLY...........well how about if I give you the pill to take. with the SE's thrown in just for shits and giggles, then you tell me how lucky I am...............which is now "WAS" since I stopped takng it cause I could not handle the SE's anymore.........
Want to know what else I said to her..........Nah, won't share that part..........
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Ducky, I guess I'm more inclined to give people a break. They are trying to make you feel better and to say something positive. But that's me.
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Just read this on an article from the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago. Thought you all might find it interesting.
"— Anastrozole, sold by AstraZeneca as Arimidex and by others in generic form, proved better than tamoxifen for preventing future breast cancers in a study of 3,100 women who had surgery and radiation for a very early form of the disease called ductal carcinoma in situ, or DCIS. More than 50,000 cases of this are diagnosed each year in the United States. The study compared five years of the drugs; after about eight years of follow-up, roughly 7 percent of women taking anastrozole had had a recurrence or a new breast cancer versus 11 percent of those on tamoxifen.
"The benefit, however, was only in women under age 60; the drugs worked equally well for older women. Tamoxifen raises the risk of uterine cancer and blood clots; anastrozole's main side effects are weakening bones and muscle and joint pain."
(Here's the complete story: Cancer Conference
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Iris, I'm lucky that I don't have much in the way of prescriptions (just Anastrozole and Fosamax). So I'm unlikely to hit the donut hole unless something new pops up. Medical costs are a killer!
HUGS!
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I have asthma and allergy stuff, caused by the lovely chemicals I worked around, printing industry was the pits but I did file a workmans comp claim and won a bit to cover my script costs
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When you know nothing about cancer, any type....it is best to say nothing........a little........."Well I really hope it all works and for you"....is fine...........don't try to tell a cancer patient what is good, better, or "at least you didn't", because nothing about cancer is good, better or as long as you didn't get this or that works .....................
I think its insensitive.......I wouldn't even tell a person with basal cell skin cancer how its good it wasn't melanoma, cause my son had 6 skin cancers.......3 basal.......3 squamous.............guess what.......his last one.....MELANOMA.............so we never know do we.
So don't try to make me feel better with a dumb comment.....sorry I guess I'm not as forgiving even though I know they mean well.......its still insensitive..............better to say nothing,
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Well, I don't agree with that. I appreciated that people WOULD say something to me. It hurt my feelings more they ignored or avoided me and my situation. Unless I have never, ever said anything stupid; then I am going to give people the benefit of the doubt....and since I am pretty sure that I have said dumb things to people who have been going through problems that I have fortunately not had to face...then I hope they will give me the benefit of the doubt too and know my words are trying to express concern and love.
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Iris, that's rotten but good that you managed to get something from Workman's Comp!
HUGS!
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Ducky, guess each of us handles well-meaning but way-off-the-mark comments from friends and acquaintances differently. I prefer to put a positive spin on them. I find negativity depressing.
Ruth, I'm with you!
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I prefer to educate those who are giving incorrect info.
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Lago, that certainly works.
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Ruth and Peggy, I have to agree. I have a friend who went through breast cancer the year before I was diagnosed. I remember making the dumbest comment ever while we were out to dinner. I said that breast cancer is the cancer I fear the least. OMG! I meant that after watching my mom go through brain cancer and my aunt deal with ovarian cancer (both are deceased now), I would rather have a very 'treatable' cancer like BC. Later I felt like a complete ass realizing how that must sound to a BC survivor and I apologized. Being a good friend, she said she completely understood and that it was no big deal. Four months later I was dignosed myself. Now I'm listenting to the stupid comments about how "lucky" I am (diagnosed early, stage 1, no chemo, etc.), but I will take these people over the friends who have literally disappeared from my life because they don't know what to say or do.
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Meljo614, I think most of us have been that "ass." Like you, I'd rather have the stupid comments from a friend who is there for me than have that friend disappear. In a similar vein, when my brother was in 7th or 8th grade, the father of his best friend committed suicide. Everyone knew it. My mother told my brother to just go and see his friend and say that he was sorry. Otherwise, it would be more and more difficult to remain friends. And that's precisely what he did and said. And they are still friends 55 years later. Something is better than nothing.
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I didn't know anything about BC before I was diagnosed. It didn't take long to read and realize just how scary it is. My SIL said she thought BC was the best type of cancer to have. I will admit that it's much better than some of the others but still not the greatest. She changed her way of thinking when I told her 30% of early stages have recurrences. I don't have time to educate everyone! All this education they talk aboutdoesn't really educate people.
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I didn't appreciate "well you got the good cancer..!!!!.......IS THERE A GOOD ONE?
My cousin had that, and she lived for 5 more years!!!!.....THANKS FOR SHARING THAT..!
Its good you only need a lumpectomy and no Chemo.....No, cooking me is good too!!!
Well at least its not the one your husband had!!!!!........3 Cheers for Pancreatic cancer...
Oh God, I hate to hear when people get the "C" word.........News flash if you say it you can't catch it.
Like I said "if you just can't say "I hope it all works out" .....say nothing......or at least think before you open your mouth.......
How doyou put a positive spin on stupidity........
Its cancer, not a head cold....................
I'm so sorry to hear that ,worked for me long before I became a cancer patient....but I knew many......my mother, father, husband, cousin, best friend, and many of my best friends right on this website........Veggie, Linda 3, Mary H, Marissa......etc......way to many....so I can't excuse people who don't think before they talk........
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I think that is why support groups (such as BCO) are so important. Although I can grieve with someone who has lost a child, there is no way I can begin to imagine their pain. I can sympathize with my friend whose husband died unexpectedly, but I can not 'know' what she is going through. I can encourage someone who is fighting an addiction, but I can't get it like a fellow addict can. There are a lot of hard situations in life that only someone who has 'been there, done that' can truly understand. (I'm afraid if all we had to be fully educated on every horrible disease/condition endured by mankind/womankind, we'd all be thrown into deep depression!)
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Exacly Ruth....so when an unknowing person has no idea what we have gone through, are about to go through, or are scared out of our wits to even think about........just say ..........
I am so sorry to hear that, and say "I'll pray for you"..........can't go wrong there.........
And your right...until you have gone through it you can't imagine what its like, any trajedy, not just cancer.........so the least said the better......sometimes a hug works best........
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lago,
thanks for steering me to the HER2+ group. I started my arimidex, the drs I go to at UCSF say they don't want to treat me too much or too little, since tumor size was 7mm. I asked if this was for 5 yrs but they've hinted that might be too much, I'll take it as long as I can, I just want to be as safe as I can since I've done everything else I can do.
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So how many of you have night sweats/hot flashes, whatever you want to call them? I don't have some of the S/E that many of you mention but wow, those night sweats are a huge drag and seem sometimes to be more frequent. I have been on Anastrozole for 27 months and would list the hot flashes at night as one the most annoying for me. I have never been a great sleeper and BC made it much worse. I do use Ativan when I need to and am not worried about taking it. I do take my AI in the morning but maybe will change it up to the evening to see if it changes anything. While I am here, I will do a little whining in general with the other S/E that bug me. Dry everything but would like to know if anyone has a suggestion for dry lips. I have tried several lip balms to no effect. I have new eye drops my optometrist gave me and am going to try to be more disciplined in using them in hopes that will work.
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I take my pill at bed time, tried the morning just easier for me. I did get night sweats, MO put me on Effexor. Didn't seem to make a difference, but some here have success with it. Mine have pretty much stopped, goody! I do have a fan blowing on me all night for the white noise, and my room isn't as cool as I'd like.
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Mess around with the timing & see if that helps. Also turn down the heat in the winter, turn up the AC in the summer, and invest in a good bedside fan (which I usually have blowing on me with or without Arimidex). I know some people have used Bag Balm (which farmers put on cows udders) for dry lips, skin etc....I think they got it from a vet, although Amazon might carry it, since it carries everything else. Coconut oil is also good for dry 'everything'.
edited to say that I checked and yes, you can get bag balm on Amazon, it looks like you could find it at Walmart, Walgrens, and other places like that too. There was a couple pages of testimonials on how it had helped people's horribly dry, chapped lips....probably worth a try.
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When I first started Femara almost 4 years ago (and was petrified) one of the ladies on this website suggested taking at night......her theory was "if your gonna get SE's like nausea, sleep lose, at least you might "sleep through it"...............I did this, and it worked for me...........never got nausea, nor did I ever have trouble sleeping..........well at least 80% of the time
I have a bad habit of getting up to go to the bathroom, and instead of coming back with a clear head, I lay down and think of all the crap from the day before, and try to solve the "world's" problems, then I can't go back to sleep..........that happens once in a while....like right now..................I have been up since 3am........could not fall back to sleep...............
Never got hot flashs..........never.................and I could not handle a fan blowing on me.....even in the summer it drives me nuts...........and the noise would more keep me awake rather then help me sleep............but my grandhchildren sleep with a fan on summer and winter..........if you go in their room and turn it off, they immediately wake up.........Crazy huh..............LOL.....
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Ducky, for nearly all my life I slept with the window air conditioner running (on fan in the winter). Helped with my allergies and the noise drowns out all the out side sounds and our older homes conversations with itself. I have recently quit doing that. But I also would wake up instantly if it stopped working (because the power went out). The silence was truly deafening! Now with just me in the house, I've quit running it. We do have central air. I'll see if I can go all summer without turning on that window unit at night
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Peg.....at my shore home there are a/c's but down there most of the time you don't have to use them.....so the overhead fan is good when it gets warmer then normal....now a "heatwave" is a different story........however.
If I put the fan on, and just a sheet, it drives me nuts that the air from the fan moves the sheet........LOL........plus I don't like the idea of the units running and you can't here what is going on in the rest of the house.............Now my Pa. 'home has central air, so that is no problem.......but the noise of the a/c or the fan down the shore drives me insane..........
I even tried one of the CD's that have all the different sounds.........well forget that too..........it also drove me nuts.......LOL......
I was talking to my daughter at 6am telling her I had been up since 3am...said I had pork roll, eggs, toast, and coffee at 3:30am......................said Nik, I am going to be ready for lunch by 9:30 am........................she said "great Mom, so does that mean dinner will be at 1:30pm................
I have a mammogram at 11am,...ugh, not looking forward to that puppy.........LOL...........and where I go they have no mercy.................I just stand there erect, and say "ow, ow, ow, ow."..............I just hope this time I don't get Tech Ratchet to do it.......she is brutal..............
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Ducky, best wishes for an easy mamo today. I got night sweats occasionally when on my AL, but they have gone away now. Never really had them much anyway. Yeah, I wake up and solve world problems, better since I am not working as then every work project would keep me awake.
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I got a few night sweats too, but so few it wasn't even worth talking about.............but sometimes I would get that before I ever had cancer..........so maybe that was just a cover too many......LOL
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At the risk of everyone's wrath----I didn't have to do Chemo, and I didn't have a mastectomy so I feel like I did get off easy.......I thank God that I was able to dodge those two things....I was convinced if I had to do chemo, I would die from the treatments....Everyone here has proven that is not the case, but it was my worst fear of the whole thing. Other than the fear it may return.
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Red, I was the same, no chemo and lumpies only but hey, that was in 08 and I am here today! hate the AL but am here!
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Red, I can completely relate. I was more afraid of chemo than the cancer. I watched chemo just eat my mom alive (brain cancer). My oncotype was 17 (high end of low risk). I opted not to do it. I have to hope it was the right decision. Proud, you give me hope!!
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