Arimidex - Coping with the SE's

Hi sunflowers, that recipe for breakfast sounds delicious I will have to give it a try.  I am not coeliac but borderline so tend to try and stay as close as possible to a gluten free diet. How much sesame and almond do you put in?

Love n hugs.

I'm new to this site.  I'm trying to find women that chose "not" to take Arimidex.  I had, DCIS ER+ Stage 1 and not in the one lymph node that was taken out in Jan 2010.  My tumor was 2 mm and doc took out the size of a baseball.  I went through four chemo treatments three weeks apart.  They were hell.  I was allergic to one of the chemo drugs, taxotere.  They pumped me full of steriods to counter act it.  Last chemo was four hours long!  Had numerous infections.  Had a  month off, then went through 33 sessions of radiation (had severe burns).  Had side effects of everything they did to me.  I am not high risk since there is no history of bc in the family.  I put on 27 pounds during all this.  I have lost 13 but need to lose at least 45 more.  We do have heart and diabetes in the family so weight gain is not good.  I'm supposed to start arimidex in a couple weeks.  Scared to death of it since I had so many side effects to everything the doctors have done.  Any advice or any women that chose not to take it?  My cure rate is around 85 % now.  Thank you.  P.S.  Losing my long hair was almost as hard as chemo.  No scarves anymore. I do exercise and eat properly.  Thanks again.

Hi KMQW2010, sorry you are here, but glad you found us.  When I was dx'd in 2003, I had a very bad reaction to the chemo so the onc refused to give me more after the first and I also had a bad reaction to the Tamoxifen.  After all this I was told to go and live my life what there was of it.  I had no node involvement so the odds were good.  Alas, five years later I was dx'd with mets to the bone.  I was very scared of taking Arimidex because of the reaction I had had to Tamoxifen but I had to try.  I have been on Arimidex for 18months now and yes there are some Se's but nothing that I haven't been able to handle.  Please don't put yourself at risk because of fear but if you have decided not to take it I hope all goes well for you.  I do know that you can lower estrogen levels by diet and there is a very good thread in this forum called Natural Girls perhaps if you read the posts there you will get some really good information.

Love n hugs.  chrissyb

KMQW2010, I was 52 and in menopause when I was dx'd.  What I didn't know was that we also produce phytoestrogens from the adrenal glands that the body then converts to estrogen so even though in menopause there is still estrogen available for the cancer to feed on.  Thank you for the good wishes and the same to you.

Love n hugs.  chrissyb

With Arimidex, you can always try it and QUIT or try something else if you have bad SEs. I am thrilled, thrilled, thrilled that it is an option for me, as it is an ongoing thing I can be doing to prevent a reoccurence, along with exercise and diet (which I am not so great about but working on). It is really your 'big gun' if you are estrogen positive....for me, chemo gave a 20% relative risk reduction, Arimidex gives me 40%....HUGE!!!!

Lowrider - I recently read something about Log Cabin's "All Natural" Syrup - it got lots and lots of stuff other than maple, it's natural but very far from all maple. You might want to check out the ingredients.

Here's the atricle: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100909/ap_on_bi_ge/us_maple_syrup_flap

Ruth, that is interesting.  Wonder what AZ would say about the generics?  Seems to me if the others are exactly the same then AZ could have kept their market share by just reducing their price.  True their profit margin would have dramatically decreased but no more than the profits that are now going to Mylan, TEVA and others.  Interesting...

Good on Costco!  What a racket Sunflowers.  Btw your recipe is tres magnifique!  So easy, dose dense nutrition and delish, what's better than that? ... I subs. for the sesame ... sunflower, always my preferred choice!  Thanks a lot!

Thank you Ruth, it's good to know they're all required to be the same.

Thank you Paamboli, looking forward to Rudi's raisin toast w/mascarpone cheese, help me Rhonda!

Have a wonderful weekend all! 

Does anybody know how I can get the coupons for brand Arimidex ? My family has insisted that, for at least a while, I stick with AZ. I'm looking into Canadian pharmacies but with the coupons, maybe I'll just keep getting it here. Thanks.

I've been reading the posts here occasionally and just wanted to mention to Sue-61 and others that the AZ coupons for Arimidex can't be used in MA due to MA healthcare regulations/restrictions, not AZ. None of the coupons from drug companies can be used in MA (Femara has some, too, but not in MA). You may want to complain to your state legislature. This will probably also be affected by national healthcare but since it is not clear what is in the bills that passed last year, who knows. 

Sunflowers

We've been discussing acupuncture at another thread. How did you find out about giving up gluten. Come to think of it, I was gluten sensitive about 15 years ago.  Eating bread in the morning gave me indigestion. Should I consult a dietician when I am at Dana Farber next?

I know one gal here is taking a lower dose of Arimidex (pill cut in half)...are any others doing this too?  After one month on Arimidex, my oncologist took me off to see if the extreme thirst and errr..."dryness" issues... were Arimidex or something else.  I had been on HRT but tossed them out as soon as I was diagnosed--it may be that too.  Thirst is gone, happily.  I was drinking big 12 oz mugs of water all day, and it didn't touch the thirst...then I'd be up 2 and 3 times a night going to the bathroom.  Dryness, is a little better, but far far from great!

The month is up next week and I have another appt with her Tuesday.  She had suggested maybe taking Tamoxifen instead, but I'm deathly afraid of that because of the possible side effects of blood clots (I have high blood pressure anyway and both my uncle and grandmother died of strokes), and the se of possible endometrial cancer.  If I'm going to nix Tamox, I feel as if I need some other possibility to suggest when I see her. Just curious if there are others taking a reduced dose of Arimidex?

FYI--I just saw an alert from the FDA that ArimaDex, a muscle building supplement sold by Genetic Edge Technologies is being recalled because it may contain the aromatase inhibitor.  This is NOT the Arimidex that we are taking.  The supplement name is different only in the second A (ArimADex) and the capital D.  I had to look at the alert a couple of times before I figured out why ArimaDex would be recalled for containing an aromatase inhibitor. 

FMI:  http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/ucm225848.htm

nmi,

Tamoxifen was the standard of care for even post menopausal women for years. Then the AIs came along and Tamoxifen became less popular for us older women. It is still a useful drug.

pam 

paamboli- 1/2 pill/ 2x day- I don't know. BUt I was told when I started the A if I missed a dose NOT to take it later but just to skip b/c I shouldn't take it within 24 hours of itself. Now I'm on the 1/2 dose (I'm the one person who is, not another person, sorry to whoever was asking) and the one time I forgot I DID take it at the 12 hr mark, figuring pretty much the same thing as you were with your question. I don't think it should really make a difference though- my onc says it is more of a cumalative effect than that- that I wouldn't feel any effects quickly from missing/discontinuing for example. On the other hand, other folks on here report changing the time of taking it to help w/ SEs. I changed early on when I was having a really hard time, but it didn't help. So i just take it at night now. Which I should go do now! Good night...