judy214's Cancer Blog
April 8, 2008
| femara or arimidex | Views: 477 |
—http:///2008/04/08/
Hi…I am Judy and was found to have breast cancer in July 2007. Was found by mammogram. Was a stage one grade three no nodes and clear margins with lumpectomy. My onco dx score was an 18. I opted out of chemo and did the rads. I was put on arimidex the first of Dec. and just got switched to femara about a week and a half ago. I hate these meds even though I am sure they are helping me immensly. I have such horrible joint pain. My doctors have not done any bone scans or anything like that. Should I suggest to them to do so? Have been having problems with fluid retention in the breast and have had a few infections from this but surgeon does not want to drain. No one seems to understand what a person goes thru unless they have been there themself. Has anyone found anything useful or a good pain pill that works for the joint pain? Any suggestions would be appreciated…
08.16.08 - 
Thanks for your support -
Dear Judy; So pleased to see that you joined the group. Good luck tomorrow. I hope you ask your Oncologist about the drugs for your bones. In my email I gave you some sites to look at. Recommend you print some info on the biphosphonates and discuss it with him. Since you have only a few precious minutes with the Doc be prepared with all your questions. Sorry to hear the femara is causing you the same problems as the Arimidex. Not sure what to say on that score as I think no matter what drug, it will cause some side effects that may be disturbing. Hopefully someone on this blog will have the answers you are looking for re your pain. I’m thinking of going to the Community Centre to swim. Maybe that will help me. By the way I am always hungry too. Another one of the side effects that most complain about. Anyway welcome and take a peek around. there are many people going through much worse problems and that really puts it into perspective for me. All is well. Take care. Weezie from Canada eh.
Judy welcome to the group. I have been on both these drugs. So I do know about the site effects. I found Advil to help, I started taking fish oil capsules vitamin D you can take the vitamin D with calcium but if you do that make sure your Dr. checks your calcium levels in you blood before plan D is ok. Also don’t think I am crazy but this works you can Google it under apple cider cures. I drink two table spoons of organic (Briggs) apple cider with honey to taste in 8 oz of water start if you can 3x a day then if you can stay on it that good if not at least once a day it really works not only that it helps with hot flashes! I found the Femara was easier on me then the Armidex. If you can get into a water exercise class that helps also. Hang in there and keep us posted on how your are doing
Cheryl58
Thanks for the replies….If I could get rid of the knee and foot pain with the femara I could handle the rest of the side effects. I do have trouble sleeping and the hot flashes are a lot better. I had lots of palpitations on the arimidex but no so yet on the femara. The pain is the part I am having trouble coping with and it is hard when there are days you feel like you cannot move.
I am having another problem with fluid in the breast and the doctor does not want to drain it. He has me wearing a sports bra 24/7 and now the breast is irritated and red. The onco thought it looked infected but the surgeon says no it is dermitis. I am about ready to throw my hands up and run really fast and find some more doctors…ha ha Has anyone had this problem with the fluid in the breast?