Arimidex - Coping with the SE's

Beau - I took it this morning  but think I might try it with dinner tomorrow - I just got off of the prilosec for a couple of days and the burn came back after taking the arimidex this morning.. .. guess I will need to start that back up too.. rats.. I know - "Just treat the symptoms and get through this!"  My med list is getting longer and longer... But with all the encouragement here - WE CAN DO THIS!!! Thank you God for holding my hand and guiding us through this...

bedo - I'm having the same thing!  Going to work as a zombie lately, very irritatating.  I'm not sure if I should adjust the time I take it to the early afternoon or stick it out until I adjust.

Any suggestions?

bedo and 37antique: i didn't have that issue when I took it with my breakfast in the morning... It seemed to be ok then and I went to work after taking it ... My issue so far has been the constant headache..

Slinky, all the AI's (arimidex, femara, Aromasin) have similar side effects.  What isn't clearly understood is one a woman will react more strongly to one than to another, but medicine takes advantage of the fact by switching us from one to another if we are having SEs that are too much to handle.  Trying another might be helpful, but your onc may ask you to stay on arrimidex for another few weeks, as the SEs often peak and then calm down after a while.  

One of the things I have noticed here is that combo drugs and drugs are not being identified correctly--------percocet------is OXY and tylenol325 mg , TYlox is OXY and 500 mg tylenol.  

Valium was referred to as not giving enough muscle relaxing affect. Valium was invented for muscle relaxation. There is no other muscle relaxer, that also has the antianxiety effect that Valium has. The dose is important though. To get the muscle relaxtion effect it needs to be at least 10 mg. Lower than that all you get is the antianxiety effect. Suggest reading inserts to identify ingredients. Valium was invented around 1960+-. Once it's antianxiety effects were identified--it's muscle relaxtion effects were forgotten by most doc's till this past decade, it was rediscovered. . But what was also forgotten, was the dose level to get to muscle relaxtion. 2.5 mg/ 5mg will not do the trick. Flexirill/soma can't come close to what valium can do at the correct dose level.

Slinky , I agrree totally with NM. I went through Arimidex and Femara. S>E out the wazzo. On Aromasin I am managing, but pain contol on all was /is a problem. All three caused fibromyalgia induced pain for me. So I take a SNRI , Savella. It is in the same familly group as Effexor/ Cybalta/ Pristique.

My drug of choice for pain is Fentanyl 25 mcg patch, I change it once a week versus every 72 hours. I will try to bring a link here, describing use

All Ai's have a drug interaction with the slow channel calcium blockers-----Norvasc and cardizem being the most common.

Posting now to get the link

http://community.breastcancer.org/forum/8/topic/770655?page=2

tested it twice ---there are 2pages. both have value. I'll test it once again before I leave.

Thanks for all the responses.  I suppose I will try staying on the Armidex a little longer, since the hot flashes have decreased by half.  Joint pain is my biggest complaint, but once I can start working out (after recovery from the next surgery), maybe the joint pain will lessen.  If they all have similar SE's, I can deal with the little SE's I have now.  I do take 10 mgs of Xanax to sleep - addicting, yes.  Sleep 8 hours straight, yes.  Well rested the next day, yes.  I know it is not good to rely on a drug to sleep, but if I don't take it, I am up all night - not good for me or those around me.

Slinky---------you do what you have to for sleep. The only thing about Xanax of all the benzodiazipines , I have found that a disruption of continuous usage, there will be more withdrawal than the others. It's observational only. If I had a patient come in on xanax, I always made sure unless there was a medical reason, it got continued. When you reach the point , that you no longer feel you need it, please, wean off it over several weeks. by decreasing the dose by no less tha 2.5 mg icrements--------Namaste sas

Is someone tries it; report back on how it works.

And if that doesn't work, I will tell you about my aunt's arthritis cure involving white raisins and GIN!

Slinky - I took valium for about 1.5  years and then switched over to Lorazepam.  When I really need sleep I take the lorazepam.  If my body is fine and it is just an insomnia issue and I have slept well for days then I will take an Ambien at night.  It all depends on how much sleep I really need and what I have planned for the next day.

Hi,

For sure I would question it.......it is never a bad thing to double check on any medication that is being filled.

Don't hesitate.

Pat

I'm sure how long it would take for the raisins to work (the gin tonic should work immediately ).

move, move, move......

or the gin dosage

I was given aridimex although I am only 5% positive for hormones, and that too, it was 5% progesterone positive, not estrogen.  I took it without any side effects for 2 months.  After 2 months, oh my God, I was hit with SE's big time.  My right hand was stiff, huge pain, and even my fingers became numb.  Up till today, 3 months after quitting, my middle right finger is still numb.  The Orthopedist has ordered an EMG test for nerves later this month.  I think that if I continued on aridimex, I would be disabled by now as the SE's were very bad in my case.  My Onc. told me that they give aridimex to anyone who has any percentage of positivity, as all they know so far, is that hormones plays a role in BC.  He said at one point, that he would have to twist my arm to make me take it.  But when I think how debilitating this was for me, I shiver.  I really was getting very disabled.  Maybe because I had really very low hormones to begin with, being almost tripple negative.  I have read that some women get used to it, or that their bodies adapt to the medication.  Sometimes, I wonder if I should have continued even with such debilitating results.  I really wish there was something I could take.  I felt my breasts were protected somehow when I was taking aridimex.  Nowadays, I have a pain or two, a twitch here and there on my breasts.  But during the medication, I didn't have any of those.  Oh, one more thing - I actually was losing weight, not gaining.  I had become really toned and it seemed like all the fat had melted or something.  I felt that I looked great while being on the medication.  Does anyone have any comments, please.  Should I try it again.  One more thing, my Onc. told me that getting on and off the medication has shown to increase BC.  So it is not good to try and then stop, and then try again.  If I am to take it again, it would have to continue no matter what.  I totally understand what he is saying, as I mentioned earlier, when I got off the medication, I felt twitching and pain here and there on my breasts.  During it, I didn't.  I am so scared.  My Onc. said it was extra insurance, that 10%.........since he said I was 90% cured after my chemo and radiation.  I guess it makes sense that there is danger if one takes it and then stops, it is because hormones plays a big role in our breasts, when you're taking the meds, it lessens the hormones and when you stop, it increases it.

Hi Slinky,



I spent one year on arimidex then switched to tamoxifen for the past year. So far I have not self-combusted. I experienced the usual SEs on arimidex which I tolerated with mild complaining but after a year I developed some neurological problems ( unrelated to breast cancer) that were made much worse by the arimidex. The change to tamoxifen helped the neurological problems and my breast cancer course continues to be uneventful. My tumor markers are in the single digits, not that that necessarily means anything. My labs are all normal. My mammos are ok so far. I too have had a hysterectomy so don't have to worry about that SE of tamoxifen. My med onc advised me to take one aspirin a day to prevent blood clots and I do remember to do that once in a while. I no longer have sore and stiff hands like I did on arimidex and I do not have leg and foot cramps in the night anymore. My hair is not coming out as much as it did on A but it has not thickened up much either. I do still have hot flashes, mostly in the evenings but I think they are not as intense as they were on A. Mostly I no longer experience the extreme weakness that made me willing to risk a higher chance of recurrence to be relieved of. BUT, as I said, an underlying neurological problem was at the root of my most debilitating SE.



Unfortunately there is no crystal ball here. I'll be happy with my decision if I do not have a

recurrence. If I do, I'll wish I had stayed the course. I have tried to be sure I am doing many other good things like lots of exercise, good diet, weight loss, healthy lifestyle, low stress, etc to make up for the few higher recurrence percentage points the tamoxifen gives me. And it really is only about a 3 percent greater risk in my case. Of course if I am one of those 3 out of a hundred ... Well, I just can't worry about that right now.



Wishing you good luck in your journey here.



Pam