Bottle 'o Tamoxifen

Anybody, else have a lot of Burping with taking the Tamoxofin?.It's like I'm constantly burping especially after eating.

Hi,

I had a discussion with a nurse who's hubby has breast cancer. She said Tamoxifen caused him to have liver cancer . Has any one else heard of this? Does this happen more in men then woman?  Also does it cause cervical cancer.  SCAREY!!!

I am wondering if the benefits of taking Tamoxifen are worth the risks when I hear things such as this!!!!

I heard the same thing as Dawn from my MO...but my chemo nurse did tell me about bone pain.  My bone pain got real bad after rads but I think it was from my chemo.  I could be wrong who knows with all the stuff I have done. 

I had a dream (nightmare) the other night about having found a tumor in my left arm.  I have been having more dreams since on Tami but I am taking Xanax and Ambien as well.  I remember thinking in my dream oh I guess a cancer cell escaped from my SN and now I wonder if it will spread?  I would fall asleep and continue the same dream.  I think this means deep in my soul I am accepting that I HAD bc.  Sometimes I wonder I know I have a certain amount of denial about it in order to keep on going and living.  It is scary...I read on a thread from a wise women who said that the hardest thing of all is to accept dx and move on, harder that surgery, chemo or rads.  It is dawning on me how right her statement is. 

I am so grateful to everyone on this site...I don't say it enough, thank you to everyone who has touched my life thru these pages and to those who paved the way before me.  Hugs to all of you who have to walk the path....Mary.

I have to admit my run on tamox seems to be going well.   I do have issues with LE in the breast and for some reason it is awful right at the end of my period.  I had been wearing my underwire bra and it created a purple welt underneath the breast.  Back to applying flamazine and bought a new bra that is for those having undergone a masectomy.  Mine has no inserts, I just require the support and no underwire.  I get very frusturated in this battle sometimes although I count myself lucky everyday regardless.   I also have to sit back and realize I am only 6 months post-op and I do oush myself at times (ie: underwire).   

Tamox is treating me well.  I may have started warm flushes but not sure yet.  Not wanting to give tamox too much credit at this point.  Lol

Corky that was me that had the excessive burping comment.What's silent reflux?

corky60 - I have been having a sort of reflux feeling but without pain and I wondered if I need to do anything about it or not.

MrsDarcy - I hope the new bra works well for you.  I am going to get in touch with the local cancer society (I am not in the USA) and find where to buy a compression bra that doesn't push on my ribs under my boobies.

Liver damage - seems like it is a possibility- funny no one mentioned this to me when giving me Tamoxifen!   The MO didn't even suggest monitoring liver function.

http://livertox.nlm.nih.gov/Tamoxifen.htm

Has anyone who has been on Tamoxifen for a few months had blood tests at their MO's suggestion?

I haven't seen my MO since November.  Have had a few email exchanges but he has not responded to me since mid-March now.  I haven't had any blood tests since December 26 (start of radiation).  I see my BS on May 8 - and requesting a change / referral of hospital / doctors.  This is nuts.  I worry about the effects Tamox is having on me yet nobody seems (medically) to really care .. so I will find a team that will .. I hope.   I asked my MO if I should take an appt with him and have bloodwork done - he just always responds "I will get back to you".  He never does.

Bounce - I went to a bra boutique that has a side-section that treats women with BS.  I found it through my LE therapist.  I have to tell you though, it's going to take all my might to wear that bra - I feel like I have been bandaged till the cows come home in that thing.

tamoxifen can cause uterine cancer, it is a side effect.  It causes the lining of the uterus to thicken.  I already have a jacked up uterus....fibroids. I've had two myomectomys, plus a uterine artery embolization.  My breast surgeon saw my pet c scan and could not believe that I had any procedures at all to remove the fibroids. She sent me to a Gyn oncologist and as soon as I'm done with radiation, I'm having the hysterectomy.  For those with a normal uterus, I think monitoring the lining of the uterus with vaginal sonos, etc. will help in staying on  top of it.  My girlfriend is into her 6th year of taking tamoxifen and has had thickening.  She doesn't seem too concerned.

Bounce, the reflux I experience is bad.  Sometimes I lose my voice from the acid on my throat.  My PCP put me on Prilosec twice per day for a month.  I am also going to try the elimination diet recommended by Dr. Koufman to see if that helps.

http://www.amazon.com/Dropping-Acid-Reflux-Diet-Cookbook/dp/0982708319/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1397576882&sr=1-1&keywords=dropping+acid+the+reflux+diet+cookbook+%26+cure

Yearly trans vaginal ultrasounds are required while on Tamoxifen, along with blood tests to check for signs that Tamoxifen may be doing harm to certain organs. I think you should see a differant MO.

I asked my onc about uterine U/S to monitor and she said straight away everybody on T. Gets thickening.  Didn't seem remotely interested in U/S to monitor it just said to do something if there was any sign of blood spotting etc 

My gyn said (about TV ultra-sounds) that they weren't necessary as long as you are still menstruating normally.  If you start to have unusual bleeding, then they will check thing out but otherwise, in a premenopausal woman on Tamoxifen she doesn't recommend them in the absence of symptoms.   The idea being that as long as you are still getting regular periods, you are regularly shedding the uterine lining, drastically decreasing your risk of uterine cancer.

Hi! I start my tamoxifen in 2 weeks when I have my mastectomy. I just wanted to ask a bit of an odd question about side effects since I haven't seen much about it: Have you ladies found vaginal dryness a real problem? Taxotere really did that for me and I am not looking forward to 5 years of that. With chemo done I'm hoping I'll get more back to normal in the bedroom now, know what I'm saying?

I just restarted my Tamoxifen on 4/7.  I stopped taking it for 7 weeks for my rads txs.  I was bouncing between diarrhea and constipation when I was on it before.  I also had much heavier periods with bad hip/pelvic pain on the first day for the three months I was on it.  I also found that I was thirsty no matter how much I drank and the need to pee would hit quickly.  I also had several soaking night sweat each night.  It took about two weeks for the SEs to begin to start and several weeks after that for them to ramp up.  My MO said that I was at a point where the SE may have started to subside when I had to stop.  It has been a fairly uneventful week for me, but my lower abdomen feels like I did a triple ABS workout in the last day or two.  I too laugh when people say, "Thank God you made it through radiation.  Now you just have to take the Tamoxifen for 5 years."  I feel like I would sound like a complainer if I took the time to list all of the SEs, so I just smile and picture myself running away screaming. 

I did my full 5 years on Tamoxifen.  For the first three and a half years I had regular periods every month, then started to taper off, and the last year on Tamoxifen no periods.  Just over a month after I stopped, my periods started again.  Last month was so bad that I went to my PCP, found out that my hemoglobin was less than half of  what it should be, was sent to the hospital for a blood transfusion and a complete gyno workup.  

Bottom line, I not only have thickening of the uterine lining, I also have endometrial cancer, and am now scheduled for a hysterectomy.  I found out last year that I have cataracts, so it seems that I managed to hit the Tamoxifen trifecta.  

In spite of that, I don't regret having taken the Tamoxifen.  I am far more concerned about the breast cancer coming back or showing up somewhere distant than I am about the endometrial cancer.  The only time that death rates for breast cancer ever went down was when Tamoxifen was introduced, and they have held steady ever since.  

I did find that while I was on the Tamoxifen, my whole body was drier.  That includes skin, eyes, and mucus membranes, bodily secretions were thicker, and stools were firmer and drier.  That has straightened out in the last year since I stopped the Tamoxifen.  

Good luck to all of you just starting out on this Tamoxi train.  It's not an easy ride, but it is the best weapon we have right now.