For Arimidex (Anastrozole) users, new, past, and ongoing
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call that trainer and make sure that they understand where and what you have been through!
me, I use a trainer, just missed 2 weeks with him due to a head cold and a blistering cough....not so run yesterday but did the class and he even asked me what I was going to do after our session. me said treadmill and swim, he said cut your time for this week so that you are not totally wiped when you get home!
be nice to yourself!
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I definitely think palpitations have something to do with estrogen. I've gotten them all my life (depending on the month) with my period. I was able to figure out they were during the days that my estrogen was lowest (my cycle was really regular, so it wasn't hard to gather that data). I had a run or two of them today and yesterday, making me think this arimidex is working...
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Exercise… believe it or not you will have more energy if you do it regularly. Initially you will be tired but after a few weeks you will feel the difference. Even if you can only do 30 minutes a day it helps. Try taking stairs instead of escalator. Don't park your car in the space closest to the store. All that on top of the 30 minutes helps too.
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I had to do chemo rehab. For months, from Aug. To Dec. With one month off for surgery. I was walking, in rehab, riding a recumbent bike. That's all! That's all I could do. And I will now confess I slept on my magic chair from bmx, 12-2011, to 2- 2013! . Couldn't get up the stairs with my knees. Took showers only once a week, as I needed someone to help me get up those stairs. Down was almost worse. It would take me 30 minutes to get up the flight of steps. Now, it takes me just minutes. I also don't need a shower chair now. So, it is slow going, but I am feeling better. You will be better too. Much love.
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How awful Moon! Why was it so brutal for you? I'm so sorry you had to go through all of that!
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Hello ladies!
I'm in my 2nd month of taking arimidex and I'm already wondering how I'm going to manage taking this for another 9 years! Insomnia, fatigue, joint pain/stiffness and cannot seem to get my weight back down to normal (I was on a ton of steroids during chemo and gained 40lbs).
Effexor is helping with the hot flashes but when a flash hits, I'm soaked, ick!
I used to be a walker/roller skater...tried to skate too soon after treatment and fell (broke 1 bone and deeply bruised knee). I keep trying to get back into my walking routine but I'm just so tired all the time. The insomnia is brutal and is coupled with restless legs, a new phenomenon since starting arimidex.
I'm also terribly depressed, but I attribute that more to trying to adjust to post treatment life then the meds. And chemo brain is still alive and well! LOL
Something tells me that Calgon can't take me away from all this! Hahahaha
Anyone else here who's been told to take after meds for more then 5 years? I feel like a total anomaly.0 -
firestorm531 I take the pill in the morning. My NP said it would interfere with sleep less. I also find that wearing a sleep mask helps. This way when I do wake up I fall back to sleep quicker since my eyes don't get used to the partial dark (like they did when I didn't wear the mask).
Things got better for me after the first year on the drug as I exercised more. Chemo-brain and Adriamycin… might take your body a little longer to get back to it's old self.
My NP told me that 10 years isn't recommended yet but the studies are pointing that way. She wanted to give me a heads up and let me know what might be coming.
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I am seeing my onc next week. After a year on AL with bad knees, a start of carpal etc , I wanted to ask her to switch my medication. But now I read that Aromasin also causes bad knees. So what is the solution? The other day, I could barely get up from crouching. Sitting in the car for 45 min and I already have stiffness and pain. When I worlk at the computer, I get up every 20 min or so if not more often, just to keep the limbs moving. If anyone has ideas, i'd love to hear.
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Firestorm: I've been on Arimidex since early DEcember 2012. My fatigue issues have made a dramatic change for the better in the past few weeks so I hope it continues. Insomnia was a problem for me before BC and continues to be a problem now. I have to take some sort of OTC sleep aid, usually Tylenol PM. I tried Unisom but it made me so groggy I couldn't get up early enough for my morning workouts. Now I only use that if I know I'm not getting up early the next day.
Something that may help with the myriad of aches and pains so many of us have is a foam roller. You know the kind they have at the gym, kind of a styrofoam-ish thing, about 6" diameter and 36" long? I was having knee pain after I started this drug that I figured was an SE. Turned out my I.T. bands needed loosening up. The first time I used the roller I thought I was gonna pass out from the pain but within just a couple of days my knee pain went away. It's basically a substitute for a deep tissue massage.
http://www.runnersworld.com/injury-treatment/almost-magical-foam-roller
This site is obviously geared toward runners, but it does explain the roller a bit and shows a few ways to use it. I love mine. If you've never used one before don't be surprised and don't give up if your first session is a bit excruciating. It's a good pain because it's releasing the lactic acid from the muscles, which is what causes the aches/pains (or so my massage therapist tells me).
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dassi52,
Switching AIs can help. I wouldn't fear one more than the other because of SEs you have read or heard about. I switched to Aromasin after being on Arimidex after 6 mo because of an eye SE. Didn't make any difference about the eyes, but I had a different set of joints aching. All relatively well managed. Hands were impacted on Arimidex and larger joints of ankle and hip (knees barely) with Aromasin. I don't know if Arimidex would have hit these joints in time. I'm staying on Aromasin because hand pain was more troubling for me. Again, I am able to keep pain to very mild, which doesn't stop me from doing anything.
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What was the alternative he gave you.?
I need to talk with my MO a i am about to give up on anastrozole
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I am 75 years old and have just finished a year of chem and radiation for hormone related breast cancer. I have been on Anastrozole for 5 weeks. The SE are awful
insomnia, joint pain in arms and hands ,neck and shoulder pain. very debilitating.
I have been reading about Chrysin being an alternative natural therapy. Has anyone any information about this.
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"Natural" usually means untested.
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the ALs are Femara, aromasin and arimedex.
if you are having problems on one, do talk to your doc as mine believes they all are basically the same. But some folks seem more affected by one than another
me started on femara, switched to aromasin after 18 months as I thought I was having a side effect...turned out that my complaint at the time was really do to a change in my statin. Took a while for me to figure that our so try not to get too nutty too soon~~
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I went to my PT this morning (been going to her for 3 months with other issues). I told her about the pain I was having under my arm where they took out the lymph nodes. She had me do an exercise that used a pillow case and slid my arm up the door facing. She said not to push it too much and when I told her that I felt the pain in the back of my arm she seemed to be pleased. She said that it was from not using my arm as much as I should and I needed to do the exercises twice a day or my sholder might freeze up. She said it had not yet. I pushed myself too much at work trying to get filing caught up and had my arm raised and that is when the pain started. I really like my PT and then she told me this was her last week. My luck!
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Claudia, sorry your PT is leaving but PT folks sure are good aren't they? love the solutions that they end up with at times!
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I used to read in bed with that arm raised and behind my head. Never had a problem with my shoulder, Lucky I guess.
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Thanks for all the replies, I really do appreciate it!
Patience has never been one of my virtues but I'm really trying to give my body a chance to recover from such a fun-filled year! lol
But there is a part of me that wonders what my reoccurrence rate will be if I ditch the after meds; silly me thought post-treatment life was going to be nothing but rainbows and butterflies LOLOL0 -
timbutu--ditto to what you said about being thankful to having something to fight reoccurring. Just have to try to think positive. Just need to try to ride the lows out and the emotions out until the clouds lifts and the sun shines.
lago--my primary (a man) is a good doctor but I am remembering right after I had my MX and had left the hospital on a Thursday, one of the doctors in the group--(a woman) actually called me on the Saturday following to asked how I was doing and when I told her that the pain meds that the surgeon had given me wasn't working, she prescribed several different ones for me to try and had them sent to my pharmacist. I've never seen her before but was wishing she was my primary; she was so compassionate. She's at the same office but I guess it is sort of a no-no to ask for a change of doctors. Just sort of felt she connected and understood. I really just feel like a patient to my other doctors and don't feel comfortable with my PS or MO. Well just sharing...
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dwill--
I used to go to a hair salon where they posted signs pretty prominently saying that it was always your right to change stylists. There may not be a similar sign at your medical office, but it is still true. It may seem awkward for you to ask, but that momwnt of awkwardness will be rewarded by years of a more satisfying relationship with a doctor. Go for it!
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I wound up going to drs that were incompetent because i did not want to hurt them and switch, Dumb! But it is a hard thing to do, Same with hairstylists!
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dwill - all you have to do is ask the receptionist about changing your primary doctor - you don't have to face the man doctor and you can tell the receptionist at this point you feel better with a woman doctor..I don't think you'll have any problem.
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Go to the doctor with whom you have the best connection. Someday your life might depend on that connection....literally!
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dwill the doctor isn't paying you to be his patient… go and switch to the other doctor. This is a service they provide for YOU not the other way around. You are allowed to choose. Even my hair stylist says people change/leave him all the time. Some actually come back some don't. He's ok with that. That's part of the business. Everyone has their own style. People sometimes need a change.
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Please excuse me for being a buttinsky. but I'm posting here because this thread is very active and I do take arimidex. About which I have some things to say, but later.....what I really want to now is - where do I post a thread about Carcinium Cambogiam the tamarind extract that promotes weight loss which everyone who watches dr Oz must know about - anybody? I 'd like to try it but wouls like more infor re ER+ status.
You can PM me if you like and will now butt out. ps I'm nearly 5 yrs on arimidex and can assure you the ses come - and they go, too!!!
. Worst at about 2 yrs, wanted to quit, had carpal tunnel, my hair thinned a lot, stiff, grumpy, tired, vagina dried up - you name it, I had it. Much, much better at 5 yrs than at 2 and if I have to continue, I certainly will. But AM stuck with big fat tummy.
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flannel, you are funny! I do not know about that tamarind thing, you might want to start your own thread to ask?
glad to know your experience on the med, me really counting the months till it is over (6 months assuming no issues~~)
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Flannelette, I tried to google it, but mostly came up with advertisements, and nothing at all about estrogen other than pregnant and breast feeding mothers shouldn't take it. The few scientific articles I came across said it was pretty much like every other miracle answer to weight loss: 'combined with exercise and a healthy diet'. With or without estrogen, I don't think it is the magic bullet. Sigh!
PS: Flannel, you are not butting in! You are a card carrying member of 'The A Team', so questions about anything can be on the table.
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I wanted to say a little bit about statistics. Most of this comes from cancermath/lifemath and is of course my own situation. At two years out my mortality risk is 10.5% at 15 yrs due to cancer. Initially, involvement with an anti-hormonal brought my risk down by 6%. This was the same as having a hysterectomy, which I have had. I have taken the medication just over a year, btw, altogether, further reducing risk. So to go back to the overall mortality risk of 10.5%, and given that the hysterectomy reduces risk by 6%, it is possible that now the risk is 4%. An AI reduces that risk by 50%. If you exercise that cuts it in half again. I don't know if that two yr. rate takes meds into consideration or not. But when I hear someone talk about how much they have suffered and then look at the benefit, I wonder. Yes it could cut risk by 40%, but if the overall risk is say 4%, then a 40% reduction is less than a 2% risk reduction. At this point according to cancermath my chances of dying of other causes is now thankfully greater than dying of cancer. In fact in 15 years, I have a 22% chance of being dead of all causes period. The narrative indicates that cancer shortens my life span by two yrs which contributes to that overall mortality rate.
I ran all these stats. by my onc. and she said that she agreed that my risk of recurrence was very low but that it was her job to encourage me to take the medication as research has shown it prevents recurrence.
I am btw trying a reduced dose of Tamoxifen right now, taken every other day, to see if I can tolerate it over time. Studies indicate that it may be the abruptness of the drop in estrogen that brings on the arthralgia.
I apologize to those following this thread that may have a very different situation. I do not wish to be insensitive but rather informative. Blessings.0 -
I do know too there is the quality of life situation to consider, as regards recurrence, which is why I keep trying with the meds.
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Dr Google suggests tamarind can be used to increase breast size. Just saying.
Flannelette I hear you about the belly fat.
Kathy0
