Debilitating fatigue with Arimidex?

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nickythebean
nickythebean Member Posts: 50

Has anyone experienced debilitating fatigue caused by Arimidex? 

My symptoms: wake 7 am, by noon I feel almost like I have the flu - a flu-ish type fatigue, and I HAVE to lay down for the afternoon. Bed at normal time. Sleep all night. 

My docs did bloodwork, checked my thyroid, etc. everything was normal. Ordered a sleep study that found severe sleep apnea.  Yay!! That must be causing my daytime fatigue! Nope. I've been on a CPAP machine and getting quality sleep for a couple of weeks now and still cannot get through the day. 

Could it possibly be the Arimidex? I have been on it since October 2013. If so, what are my options?

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  • cfdr
    cfdr Member Posts: 549
    edited August 2014

    I am having the same pattern, but I am on letrozole. I start to lose steam anywhere between 11:30 and 3:30. I started CPAP, sleep great. I'm not sleepy. I don't lie down because I need to sleep, but because sitting up in a chair is actually difficult. Some afternoons I work lying on the sofa with my laptop...if the brain fog that accompanies the fatigue lets me work at all.

  • Widdershins3
    Widdershins3 Member Posts: 24
    edited September 2014

    Arimidex almost incapacitated me by the time I'd been on it for almost a year. I had brand new joint pain and was exhausted and incredibly weak, even though I'd been very active for my age (67). My doctors pooh-poohed it as not being due to the drug and I constantly got the message that it was "just my age" even though I never had the problems before beginning Arimidex.

    The final straw, for me, was when it began to affect my head--I'd feel a weird wave of dizziness begin at the back of my skull and sweep forward, leaving me very scared and barely able to balance. Before beginning the drug, my balance had been excellent, especially for someone my age. So I gave up on ever getting a doctor to believe it was the drug and simply notified them that I was stopping and why. That was hard for me to do, for so many reasons.

    But in 24 hours I felt MUCH better and the dizzy spells had stopped completely (after having had at least 2 dozen of them the last day on the med) and in 48 hours the fatigue was gone and I finally got my energy back. I refused to go on Aromasin until my poor body had had at least a 2-3 week vacation from any anti-estrogen drug. 

    When I finally started Aromasin, the joint pain worsened again and for the first time I got a bizarre severe pain in the palm of my left hand when I woke up every morning. Not trigger finger, but in the finger bones inside the hand. It was there each morning for months, then 2 days ago it just went away--! No idea if the relief is permanent.

    And now I have 4 more years on these drugs--I'm really worried that they're destroying my joints, but want to increase my time without cancer. So I guess I'm stuck on them. Not happy about that.

  • Bren-2007
    Bren-2007 Member Posts: 6,241
    edited September 2014

    Widdershins,

    I had the same trouble with Arimidex.  I experienced extreme vertigo, dizziness and nausea from the first day I took it.  There was no way I could even drive.  I only lasted one week on that medication.

    hugs,

    Bren

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