Life on aromasin

I know I definitely was when on chemo. My DH thought I was grumpier on aromasin. Me I had just thought it was part of my natural, winning personality, but he really felt I got a shorter fuse from it.

Does hair grow back after stopping Anastrozole? Thanks!

OMG, Claire! Occams Razor! I have not heard that used in a really long time! My ex husband would say that to me whenever I would make things too complicated!! We've been apart since 2002! When we were finalizing our divorce, he was trying to talk about why he should get "more" of the proceeds from the sale of the house and had this complicated reasoning he was throwing at me. I threw "Occams Razor" back at him and told him 50-50 bucko! LOL. Thanks for the smile today. He passed away last year and I now have much more fond memories of him than bad ones so this was a good one today.

Hi April485,

Thank you for recognizing that reference. I love it, actually! And my ex just died 2 weeks ago from pancreatic and liver cancer....my daughter is heartbroken, of course--her dad was just 61 and it was a terribly agressive cancer: 5 months from dx to end. I am shocked by the sadness I feel for his death. We haven't been married for 23 years and although the break up was terribly acrimonious and hurtful, we made our peace, were able to be co-parents to our only child, and I was able to see him and talk to him right before he died. I love how so many of us can find similarities in our lives on this discussion board.

claire

cybermab - I did the opposite - Tami to Aromasin to Femara. The hair loss started when I began Aromasin and has continued. I've been to a couple dermatologists and had a scalp biopsy to get a final diagnosis. A lot of things can cause hair loss and it may help you to get a diagnosis and find out what will and will not be of help to you. Is it fair to assume the severity of your injuries are due to bone loss? It sounds horrible.

Did anyone experience better sleep on Aromasin? I know one of the side effects is insomnia, but strangely I've been getting deeper and less interrupted sleep since I started this medication. I was on Tamoxifen for 10 month, started Zoladex two months ago and Aromasin a month ago and have only been experiencing minor side effects so far like mild hot flashes and intermittent mild joint pain (granted it's only been a month).

I always had terrible sleep and it continued and worsened on chemo and tamoxifen. I take Aromasin in the morning and haven't noticed increased fatigue yet that might explain improved sleep. I also noticed more mental clarity on it compared to tamoxifen. I just find better sleep weird, not that complaining!

My sleep is much better on Aromasin. And I felt mentally more clear than on Arimidex, even after an 8 week break. Yes I was still getting over chemo and rads, but I noticed a sharp difference aftera week on the drug.

Molly,

Sometimes my writing may not be clear for quick readers. I am much sharper on Aromasin than Arimdex. And after a8 week break.

I understand. Had to get my prescription changed last year because I couldn't read small print anymore, even with my glasses off. I hated to read on my phone. Now I use it in place of my laptop all the time.

The downside of worse vision, even corrected, is that my downward peripheral vision is worse and I miss seeing stairs. Nursing a sprained ankle and skinned knee. The MO nurse wanted to give me a pamphlet on how to prevent falls. I declined. Need only to stop running down stairs while distracted.

I've always thought running down stairs could build bone density. I guess not, if all it gets you is four weeks of hobbling with a sprained ankle.

This is from an article called Ten Practice Changes I will make after ASCO 2016: I am posting just the part important to BC and AI's

1. I will not use exemestane as adjuvant treatment for invasive lobular breast cancer in favor of one of the two nonsteroidal AIs, anastrozole or letrozole (Abstract521). There are increasing data that exemestane is less effective in patients with this histology, which was confirmed by this review of the MA.27 study by Strasser-Weippl et al. Patients with invasive lobular carcinoma had improved overall survival when treated with anastrozole as opposed to exemestane (HR, 1.8; P = .55), consistent with the findings in the BIG 1-98 trial.
2. I will be using more AC/T and less TC in patients with high-risk early breast cancer, based on the ABC analysis of three randomized trials presented by Blum et al (Abstract 1000). In this initial report, the non-anthracycline regimen did NOT demonstrate noninferiority to the anthracycline regimens. TC may be noninferior for ER-positive patients, however, but for receptor-negative patients, I will use anthracyclines in most cases.
3. I will recommend the continuation of aromatase inhibitor (AI) therapy for at least an additional 5 years in high-risk postmenopausal women with early-stage breast cancer. Many of these women have been reluctant to stop their AI at 5 years; I have generally made recommendations case by case, but mentioned that we will have data to help guide our decisions, once we had the results from the MA.17R and B42 studies. The initial results from MA17.R were presented at the Plenary Session (Abstract LBA1) by Dr. Goss. In patients treated with 5 years of AI, as initial therapy or preceded by up to 5 years of tamoxifen, extended AI treatment to 10 years (as opposed to placebo) significantly improved disease-free survival. The gains were modest, and there was an increased risk of osteoporosis; so, I don't plan on this approach in all of these women, but I will have the discussion, considering the risks and benefits, and probably recommend continuation in women at high risk of late recurrence. Data presented in Abstract 505 by Pan et al was an analysis of predictive factors for late recurrences in ER-positive patients (over 46,000 British women followed for up to 14 years), and its findings will help in advising our patients.

Oh Galsal, I hope not. How long till you find out? I will pray for you. Love, Jean

Best wishes Galsal.

Good news, Galsal! Happy dance for you!

Great news, Galsal!