Completed 10 years anti-hormonal: now doc rx evista????

Anonymous

Sbelizabeth, love your Colorado columbine!

I was ecstatic to stop. Thought I was done, 1 year check ups, lah dee dah. Then my former oncologist (who checks tumor markers even though majority of oncologists don't as part of a regular check up for patients like me) scared the crap out of me by telling me my markers were up. The WAY he told me, the way he didn't check until the last min before I left an appt and then I asked him, and the way his NP talked to me made me decide to fire them and luckily my wonderful MO who took care of me through dx, tx, and follow up came back to practice, so I'm with her. She doesn't check markers, but looks closely at other values, etc. And I am fine with seeing HER every six months.

Anyway, I had that brief hiatus from exemestane but the previous oncologist had me immediately taking Evista--see previous update--so I was always on something. That was a disappointment.

I've been back on exemestane for appx. 3 months now. I didn't feel anything off of it OR on it again--but I am very lucky in that exemestane was the one AI that didn't cause problems for me. Well, maybe some osteopenia that responded to the Prolia a few years ago--but mild osteopenia isn't out of the question; it's part of normal ageing, too, for women. I do tons of weightbearing exercises, Pilates with weights, etc., too.

However, it was a real experience to self-inject my Prolia this time around. Something about insurance coverage, not being able to send it to my MO because of some ridiculous insurance red tape, but we figured out I could get it paid for if they sent it to me directly and I gave it to myself. That's another story. But I did it and figured it's just another exhibition of bravery that we all are asked to do in order to keep ourselves alive.

Claire