BRCA 1/2 & AIs

I had 3+ years of Tamox and 3+ years of Femara.

While on Tamox, I broke my ankle when I dumped my Harley. Five days later I was in the hospital with DVT that went from my ankle up to mid-thigh. I dodged a bullet. After that, my onc took me off Tamox & put me on Femara.

I had horrilble problems with Femara. My fingers that wouldn't bend and were very, very painful. I couldn't even hold a pen. After a year+ of struggling, eathing Motrin, asprin, Tylenol, etc., I stopped taking my Centrium, fish oil & Calcitrate. Surprise. In a couple of days the non-bending, painful fingers had relief. I waited about a week & started my Calcitrate and within 3 days, the painful fingers came back. All the time, I was still taking the Femara. I switched to Oscal and my fingers returned to normal. I added back the fish oil & Centrium. All is good. So it was the type of calcium I was taking.

I now have slightly high cholosterol and must take a very, very small does of Lovastatin. The cholosterol problem is a SE of the Femara.

I'm having PBMX in March. My last Femara will be Feb 14th.

My onc believes Femara is better than Arimidex regardless of BRCA. My older sister is on the Arimidex and doesn't have SE's but she is not BRCA+ and I am.

I was no where near menopause when I had chemo. My first chemo slammed me hard, face first into menopause. I thought I was going to die because of the night sweats. I was up all night sweating like a pig & couldn't sleep. Onc put me on Effexor 75mg. That kinda helped with the night sweats but, I felt fuzzy. We dropped my dosage down to 37.5mg and the night sweats mostly subsided at least to a point I could tolerate. I was on Effexor for 2 or 3 years then I slowly weaned myself off. I very occasionally get a randome hot flash, but the night sweats did not come back..

Good luck.

bonny