Faslodex Girls

Shots tomorrow morning 💀. Two arthritis strength tylenols and 5 mg of Valium before I go...

Mary,

Sending good thoughts your way.

*susan*

Welcome Peachy. So glad to hear that your first injections went well!

*susan*

Peachy, glad you had a good experience. I think I have trouble only because my right hip, leg, etc. have had so much trauma. My left side is always fine. Pajim, Susan, thanks for the good thoughts. I also find that massaging the injection sites, exercise, and heat help a lot.

Vent Alert!!!! Firmly in the grip of that d@mned scanxiety!!! Had bone scan and x- ray today to assess much increased pain in some of my known met areas + a few new areas. Had been hoping it was just due to too much activity during vacation a few weeks ago, but when the 2-week mark passed and pain was getting worse, DH dinally convinced me to call the doc since we are leaving in 2 weeks for our long-awaited 10-day "bucket list" trip to Greece and he didn't want me to shatter a hip while on some remote Greek island. While I agreed with his logic, part of my wanted to play ostrich, ramp up the pain meds, and just worry about any potential progression after the trip.



So here I sit trying not to think about that report sitting in my onc's inbox, the results of which I won't know until my follow-up appt. day after tomorrow. My tumor markers are still in the normal range and continuing to decline, so I'm trying to take heart in that. Only problem is that I've also started having nausea again which makes me worry that the little bastards may be ramping up to throw another party in my liver again.



Thanks for letting me vent. Feels better just to get it off my chest!! Daytime has been too busy trying to get my daughter ready for college (her orientation starts the day we leave for Greece!!) ... It seems like nighttime is the worst for having my mind work against me! Don't want to leave the Bottoms-Up club yet!!

Today is treatment day. Hydrated all day yesterday in preparation and planned to sleep in a bit this morning. But, at 6am I started to hear helicopters and sirens. It got so loud, I crawled out of bed at 6:15. There is a seven-alarm fire right near me. Four three-families are burning in a very densly populated neighborhood. Everyone is safely out, but getting this fire under control is proving to be difficult.

Really would have liked some more sleep, but so thankful that those are not my homes. Somerville is a very dense city, and yet very compassionate. By tomorrow, there will be groups collecting donations to help those that have lost their homes.

*susan*

Thx for the support, Tina and Susan!! Susan, hope your tx goes well today!! Sorry that your neighbors had such a tragedy -- but you're right...does sort of put the fanny pain in perspective on treatment day!!



Tina, I took your advice and emailed the office saying (truthfully) that DH is swamped at work and I'd like to know if we're facing bad news cuz I don't want to ask him to take off work if everything's OK (well, as OK as things can be when u have Stage IV cancer!!).



I'll let ya know what I find out. Thanks for holding my cyber-hand!!!

Marymoir, It's good too vent! We need somewhere we can do it, and this site is the BEST! Everyone here is very compassionate and knows how you feel, because we've all felt that way. I'm praying that your scans come out great and you can have a wonderful vacation! I always ask for the results after vacation, if I have one coming up, so I can enjoy my vacation, but you know what? I worry about what the results are my whole vacation! I have friends and family that have been to Greece and they all agreed its wonderful. Enjoy!

Lynne

Good news!! I get to stay in the Fanny Pack!! I had asked to have the NP call if the results of the bone scan and x-ray showed no progression so we could save my DH a long trip in rush-hour traffic, and they just called to say the scan showed no new areas or increase in size of the known mets so they were canceling the appt!!! Needless to say I am ready to go celebrate...good thing my neighbor had planned a ladies' night for tonight (of course, it could have been a real drag if it had been bad news...).



Thanks so much to my fanny pack sisters for talking me down from a ledge!! Now I can proceed full tilt with our plans to go to Greece (although I guess I shouldn't plan on any parasailing or donkey wrangling while I'm there!!)

A big YAY!!! Now go have fun! And please hoist a few glasses of those lovely white Greek wines to your friends in the Fanny Pack!

Tina

Hello!  I just joined the Faslodex club yesterday.  I read through some of the posts to prepare me for what to expect and the first injections yesterday went OK.  I think I was expecting worse!  So I'm hoping for minimal side effects, though have noticed the weird smelling pee almost immediately!  Thank goodness I did read about it here but I'm wondering is it going to be that way the whole time on faslodex?  Or just for a while after the injections?  Anyhow, thanks to everyone who shared their experiences here! 

Hi Groovy, welcome to the club.  Hope the drug is gentle for you.  Many ladies have very few side-effects.  Maybe it's because we don't remember anything anymore?

I get the smell -- it usually lasts for a few days, but sometimes there's a whiff a week later.  Last dose I didn't notice it for more than a day, but see the last sentence of the paragraph above.

Pam

Welcome, Groovywilma-- 

I've been very lucky with Faslodex so far... very minimal SE's and great nurses doing the injections.  I usually have the funny pee smell within a day or two of the injection, and it hasn't lasted more than a day or so.  I try to drink even more water than normal to try to flush out any lingering effects, and it seems to help. Good luck with Faslodex-- hope it works like a charm for you!

Groovywilma,

If your doc says it's okay, it's okay. Not sure about "official" timing for the second loading dose, but the protocol for the injections post-loading doses is every 28 days. Giving or taking a couple of days on either end is not a big deal.

Enjoy the concert!

Tina

I did the loading doses on time so can't say anything to that, but next month I have two trips scheduled with the one day in between for the shots.  When I asked if I really needed to come back to town on THE [scheduled] day, he said heck no we'll do it the next week. 

He's a big believer in QOL so I don't know whether he's putting that ahead, but the blood levels shouldn't alter that much.

The reason for the second loading dose is it takes a while for the blood(?) levels of the drug to ramp up.  They give the second one to get the level up faster.  After that it's maintenance.     [I hope the info I just gave isn't bogus.  It's certainly true for letrozole, tamoxifen, pain meds, etc.]