Bottle 'o Tamoxifen

CatbirdC

Brenda ~

You Go Girl  !!!!!     That sounds great to me.

Millie~~  So sorry to hear about your problems with Tamoxifen and the periods.  Let us

know what the results show. 

MTG

Something else we can do about the New Mammogram Guidelines: sign a petition SUPPORTING The "EARLY ACT", a bill advocating early screenings and self exam......and this has apparently been around for a while.

For information about the EARLY ACT: http://earlyactawareness.org/

 "Authored by Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL) and sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), "Young Women's Breast Health Education and Awareness Requires Learning Young Act of 2009'' or ‘‘EARLY Act". would direct the Centers for Disease Control to develop and implement a national education campaign about the threat breast cancer poses to young adult women. The EARLY ACT would also create a national education campaign for healthcare professionals and create materials to help patients address long-term effects and challenges associated with breast cancer."

For the petition: http://komenpolicy.org/campaign/alert_early_act?rk=K7c1wxKaovtHW .fill in the blanks and hit send, so SUPER EASY

For the contrarian and scary view, that the act "would do more harm than good" for such stellar reasons as  "In addition to making young women more aware (and undoubtedly more worried) about breast cancer" and "....breast self-examinations to achieve "early detection of breast cancer among young women." But there is no credible scientific evidence that this would reduce breast cancer deaths": http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jul/31/opinion/oe-woloshin31?pg=2

Please note: this article came out July 31, 2009 so apparently the New Mammography Guidelines have been brewing for a while; in my opinion, this makes them all the more dangerous.

zachmomma

hi ladies!!  I made it through surgery pretty well, got home Wednesday afternoon. So far, so good, no fever and not too much pain, just very tired and some nausea...

Patti

bcamnb

Way to go, Patti. Be good to yourself!

CatbirdC

Hi Everybody,

Patti  ~~   Happy to hear all went well with your surgery.  Take Care.

 M~       Thanks for the info.  I'll check that out.  I'm glad women are taking this seriously and     

             fighting back for their helath.

Susie~  Hope you're feeling better !!!!

Bonnie

Rachel_BC

PATTI- YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!! Thanks for posting!  

Mary22

So many new faces here. I have not posted in awhile, between stress at home and at work, it has been an exhausting school year!

MTG

Mary22  - Believe it or not, I'm jealous. I can't wait for "real life" stress to supercede BC (or should I say, BS) stress. Good for you !

rgiuff

Millie, that happened to me after 6 months of no periods, while on the tamox.  In February, I had periods 2 weeks apart, then had 1 about 2-3 weeks later in March,  and nothing further since then!  Never thought to tell my Gyn at the time, because this has happened a few times in the past year or two, even before breast cancer.  I know that this does happen during perimenopause, so I never thought anything of it.  Is it possible that you are in that phase of life yet?

silviazara

Hello, I started Tamoxifen 2 days ago and tonight I am feeling pretty dizzy. Now I am not sure if it can be from H1N1 vaccine I got today or if the side effects of Tamo have kicked in. I am reading the side effects over and over and must admit I stress myself a lot.

Anyway, just wanted to say hi  and join this group ;-)

Susie09

Well, I am still alive. If the tamox doesn't do me in, this flu will. UGH..  I can't believe I got this AFTER I got the flu shot.  Bonnie?  You said the same thing happened to your gf?  I called my oncologist and he said it wasn't possible.  But, what does he know. lol

Hello to all of the newcomers.  Congrats on anyone that had something good happen.  And, I pray that noone follows those new insane guidelines for a mammo. 

My headaches seem to be better from the tamox.  Not for sure why.  Maybe because the flu is overtaking them.  lol

Susie

bcamnb

Hi silviazara,   welcome to this site. Great women here!

bcamnb

great the headaches are diminishing Susie - YEAH.

Hope you just have regular flu and not the H1N1.

Finally got my vaccination on Wed. With a very pregnant daughter-in-law, we are trying to stay VERY healthy.

CatbirdC

Susie~~

You're right.  The medical folks tell us that the flu vacine in a shot is DEAD and therefore it is IMPOSSIBLE that it could make you sick.  BUT....You are the third person I know,,,,no fourth that has gotten sick after a flu shot.  Could it be that you actually had it and didn't know it...... and might have come down with flu if you didn't even take the shot.  That's all I can figure.

Now I did read if you take the H121 via the nose that you can have a "slight" so they say "flulike" so they say ....... reaction to that.

Who knows!!!   Next they'll say we only need a flu shot every TWO YEARS after 50  !!!!!!!!!!!

Welcome to Silviazara !!!!   Join in the conversations.  We have many.  LOL

Bonnie

linn56

RE: cooking Thanksgiving dinner:

By being worried about spending time with sick people I didn't mean infectious; my SIL and other extended family have health issues, none of which have been successfully diagnosed. So they are in pain and feel really rotten, worse than I do.

(Although it always seems like a day AFTER any family get-together I get a call that, oh, sorry, nephew/niece is coughing, sneezing, throwing up, etc., the day after : meaning I have already been exposed. Normally I tank up on Vit C and echinacea a few days before I even see them, because I think they are all disease vectors. But for now I can't take the Vit C, not sure about the Echinacea. )

I normally like to be creative with cooking, but have found out that for some unknown reason, people want Thanksgiving dinner to be very traditional. I learned this the hard way. I will always remember the first year I hosted, right after we were married, and researched authentic colonial Thanksgiving dishes. I cooked fresh pumpkin and sweet potatoes, cranberries etc., from scratch. My mother (who had  arrived a day ahead) saw what I was doing and warned me. She ran out and bought canned glazed sweet potatoes and cranberries in a can, canned green beans and mushroom soup, etc. Guess what people ate. No one touched the "authentic" and creative dishes, apart from my spouse, parents, and myself. All the following week we ate the colonial dishes (which were delicious, by the way).  Since dinner was for 20, there was a lot. My mother was a wonderful from-scratch cook, but she also had learned.

So it will be very basic. My husband will do the turkey, which is the only tricky thing. I will make mashed potatoes, cranberry-orange relish and a jello mold (I would have a rebellion on my hands if there was no jello mold, and no one else seems to be able to figure out how to make one, LOL).  I will ask the guests each to bring a side dish, dessert or wine. We now have 3 vegetarians in the group (none of whom know how to cook: which I find hilarious). I have no idea what to make for them. I won't use soy or tofu as I'm afraid of getting some accidentally and it makes me really sick.

jpn577

A thought is to not get too worried about the listed, possible, side effects.  By law, they are required to post all side effects reported. That's why for some meds you see "may drowsiness" right along with "may cause sleeplessness".  Covers the spectrum, eh?

Weight gain, weight loss.....also covers the spectrum! Just eat well and stay active and all will be fine.  As for hair loss... not to worry... mine all came back (so did EVERY other woman's I know) and not one of them had a problem with it being too thin.  Since Tamox and AI's do give us post-menopausal symptoms, some over-all body, general changes will probably occur.  But the best side effect:  "helps preven cancer recurrence".  Now THAT's a side effect to write home about.  :-)

CatbirdC

Hi !

 JPN  ~~           I wasn't going to post but after reading your email I just have to compliment you

on your positive attitude going there girl !!!!!   Got to think that way myself when one of the Big T's

things hits me.

Linn ~~  I for one knew what you meant but thought you needed a break on the dinner and that

any of us can use.  But it should be fine as you describe the "division" of labor.  )

Bonnie

Rachel_BC

jpn- rock on girl!!! !I am with you!  LOVE Tamoxifen, it's my security blanket.  I'm all about doing whatever I can to make it easy- and for me, 3 months in now, it IS!

bcamnb

Hi All,



I am almost finished two months of Tamox. Lately, my 2/3s boob seems to be getting sorer by the day. Anybody else have this? Any idea what causes it? What did you do for it? How long did it last? .....Any suggestions will be MOST welcome.

Caroline

Susie09

I just got the regular, seasonal flu shot.  But, I got sick about 4 hours later with the flu.  I think it is way too coincidental that I got sick only hours after the shot.  But, the good news, I am better finally!  Do I hear a YEA???????????????????  And,  my hubby really babied me while I was sick, and, I Ioved that!  I even got gifts!  Ok, another YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

The headache is back.    But, it doesn't seem as bad as before, so, maybe they are going to stop.  I just don't think I noticed while I was so sick with the flu.   

So far, I don't have any other side effects.  Is it still too soon?  Or, maybe I will be lucky and not have anymore?

Caroline?  I don't understand about your boob being sore?  Mine is still somewhat from rads.  Is that maybe why yours is?  I don't think tamox does that, or, does it?

Ok, later ladies!

Susie

MTG

Susie09 - Do you have any allergies, like to milk or something ? It doesn't make sense that the SE have hit you so quickly, so hard  and every single day. I'm wondering if maybe you are having an allergic reaction to one of the fillers (i.e. inactive ingredients) that may be innocuous to all of us but to which you are senstive. Just a thought.

Susie09

LOL!  I love your pic MTG!  I only started getting the headaches the day after I took tamox.  I used to get them every now and then, like everyone else, but, everyday with tamox.  But, thank God,  they are better now, or, seem to be.  So, I am thinking they are going to go away totally.  My oncologist told me that everyone can have se's that aren't known, written down at anytime.  So, he thinks that it is one of the se's of tamox, but, that it might go away too.  No, I have no allergies.  But, thanks MTG for trying to figure this out.  I will be fine!  They are better and not as bad as they first were..not at all. 

Susie

yasminv1

Hi Everyone,

I started Tamoxifen 2 days ago. So far so good..no SE's. I hope taking this medicine goes smoothly for me. I am ready for the hot flashes. My fear is weight gain. I gained 12 pounds during chemo and asked my oncologist about gaining weight while on Tamoxifen. He said all studies so far don't show that tamoxifen attributes to weight gain. But from what I keep reading many say it does make you gain weight. Nevertheless, I started eating clean and began an intense fitness regimen after finishing chemo 5 weeks ago. Praying all this work helps prevent additional weight gain.

Yasmin

CatbirdC

Hi All,

Susie -   So good to have you back girl and I'll say Yay to that.  )  Glad hubby babied you.  That's always nice when someone we care about does that for us.

I think your headaches were from the Big T myself and that they're tapering a tad now.  My worst se was dry eyes .... which I continue to have.  I'm on artificial tears and Omega 3 for that.  It helps a lot but I still have that bugging me.  An occasional hard foot cramp.... after lots.... andhot flush maybe 5 times a week now after lots more of that.  So like you things are easing up.  can't think of any others off the top of my head right now.  All in all  not so terrible.

Yasmin..... you can use the search here and type in Tamoxifen and weight gain.  You'll get lots of info on it.  I know they say chemo definitely causes it.  And inactivity when we're not feeling up to our old selves does too.  I'm sure you'll lose it once you get your old YOU back.  )

 I was shopping today and I'm one tired old gal.  But it was fun.

Susie09

Shopping Bonnie?  My favorite thing!  Well, maybe not number one, but, it is up there.  lol  Did you get a lot?  Christmas shopping or for Thanksgiving? 

I am sorry for your se's.  Is there anything else you can do for them? 

And, Hi Yasmin!  I don't know about the weight gain for sure.  I know several have said they gained weight on tamox and it is listed as one of the side effects.  I am afraid of gaining weight too.  That was one of the reasons I was putting off taking it for awhile.  But, then I figured if I started to gain weight, I would start exercising or something and maybe that would help.  Let us know how you do.

Susie

CatbirdC

Hi Everybody In Big T Land !!!!!!  

Of all the subjects on here it seems like this generates the most talking.  There must be millions of women on Tamoxifen experiencing almost that many different responses to it. 

Susie ~~  The shopping was to a bigger mall about 90 minutes away and a get away for my daughter and me.  We had dinner and yak yak yak.  It was nice. 

As for the SE's they're not that bad and I do think the nasty things do slowly slowly decrease and in some cases leave. 

Yasmin ~~  I'm like Susie on the weight gain.  If I do, I'll either walk more or eat less.  LOL  I'll give it a try any how.

Bonnie

Susie09

Hi all!  So, we are all in T land now?  lol  I think that is funny Bonnie! 

And, this does generate the most convo of any other thread on here.  I love it, but, I get lost if I don't check it all of the time.  When I was feeling really yucky with the flu, I came on and felt helpless as to what was going on.  It took awhile to read everything to catch up and I apologize if I missed welcoming or responding to someone. 

Shopping and lunch with your daughter sounds so nice Bonnie!  I miss talking to my Mom.......

And Yasmin, if you start gaining weight, it might be only temporary on tamox.  I don't know.  Has anyone or everyone gained weight on tamox? 

Susie

Susie09

bcamnb? Caroline?  Did you have radiation treatments?  Maybe that is why your boob is sore? 

Susie

brenda63

I went to see my oncologist because I have been having my periods every 2 weeks. I have been on the big T for 6 mons. He told me to stop taking it until I get a DNC to find out if it is from T. If it is. He doesn't want me to take it any more. Has any one been threw this? Scared to stop taking it. I never thought I would say.... I hope it is menopause not side affects from the T.

bcamnb

Sore boob -

yes, I had rads but the last one was Sept 2. By Oct 1, my boob was getting back to its new normal and not so sore. It is only lately it has been getting really sore and the only new thing was the Tamox.

Now, that said, yesterday I cheated big time and had a phytoestrogen orgy - a cup of delicious curried squash-lentil soup and my treat-to-myself weekly glass of red wine. AND BEHOLD, today it is much less sore - go figure.