Good News at Yearly Exam

pupfoster1

The dreaded yet glad to have several behind my belt yearly exam was today. Every thing looks good and stable at this point, although she did advise me to lose a bit of weight. She said statistics show a good weight can cut recurrence by 40%, so GOTTA get on board! She also gave me the option to go off of Tamoxifen as I've been on it for over 5 years now! I said NO I want to stay on it as I haven't been having any serious side effects So the 10 year plan it is!

Hope everyone is doing as best they can today. There is hope.

Love,

Sharon

sugarplum

Sharon - good to read your cheery post. I've got my 6-month onc checkup tomorrow and I share your feelings about getting it behind me. All they do is a blood test nowadays along with feeling my neck, underarms, abdomen etc. At my last appointment they told me I should switch from Arimidex (which I've been on for 8 & 1/2 years now) to Tamoxifen because I was perilously close to osteoporosis in my spine - but I chickened out and will have to admit to them tomorrow that I haven't changed yet. I want to get one more DEXA scan at the end of this year and then will probably have to switch, but I don't think anyone is happy with my procrastination (hubby doesn't even want to be in the room with me this appt).

Oh well - after I'm done we get to spend a week of vacation at our beach cabin, so things will be looking up (hopefully!)

Here's wishing many more good years - for all of us!

Julie

hopefour

Pupfoster...Congrats on doing so well! Yea for 5 years!!!Totally get how relived you are when each check up is behind you!! Think staying on Tamoxifen for 10 years is a good thing! Weight can be such a battle. MD Anderson told me that keeping my weight within my BMI would make my ALs more effective..so that has been a big motivation for me. They also said to exercise each day for at least 30 mins ( break a sweat)!

Sugarplum...Congrats on 8 1/2 years, such an encouragement for us all!! Hope all went well with your check up and now on to enjoying summer! Don't know if this will be of any help for you, but MD Anderson told me to take a calcium supplement with D3 each morning and evening....said not to take 2 at a time as the liver couldn't absorb it, but rather to space it out so its better absorb. Don't know if this will help with the bone strenght, but maybe!

Anonymous

Sharon:

Your onc has much different advice on the hormone therapy than mine. I took Tamoxifen for 5 years and now she has me switched to Femara for 5 years. She said it does better for post-menopausal women. What age were you at time of diagnosis? Maybe that has something to do with it. I think Tamoxifen has much less SE's than the Femara. Femara is known to wreck bones and I pray I don't fall and break something. I get exercise at the gym 3 x per week usually but I'm sure that's no match for this drug's effects. Be well - Shelly

fondak

Sharon that's wonderful news!

Julie, I too am about to go for my 6 months check up along with a dexa scan and an mri on my other breast in the coming weeks. I'm especially going to glad to have the mri over. I was suppose to have them every 6 months and due to insurance I was only able to get mammograms which didn't show my cancer when the lump was obvious.

I actually have an appointment with a new medical doctor for my regular check ups and to see about help with weight loss and to see if I need to be aware of anything before starting back at the gym. I was working out when I started having back trouble and learned I quickly went from strong bones to osteopenia along with degenerative disk and arthritis in my back since starting aromasin. At the time, I was taking 1200mg of calcium once a day because I didn't know about the absorption issues with taking that much at once and I was taking it with my vitamin which I'm not suppose to do. I was also taking IP6 (from the health food store) which I learned fights cancer but increases the risk of osteoporosis. Hopefully with the changes I will have a better report this time.

I've gained 40 lbs, yes 40, since my diagnosis and it is continually on a gradual incline. If I stay on a 1200 calorie diet it slows it down but I don't lose. Before cancer, if I ate like that I would be where I wanted in a week! My oncologist and regular medical doctor says as long as I'm not losing, they don't worry but that was a few visits back. Now they just tell me it's really hard to lose on aromasin for some people. I did tell them there's other things to die from than cancer and the weight concerns me.

As much as I don't like how I feel on aromasin.....though it has improved some.....I'm scared to go off.

Julie hoping for a good report followed by a wonderful time at the beach! It nice you will have the appointments behind you when you go.