FEMARA

Thank you, Artista928. Will give it a try.

Oh, and the jaw pain is indeed a sinus infection.

Yeah ChiSandy! I can't exercise with my pre-cancer severe bilat knee osteoarthritis so my pcp is giving me a scrip for Phentermine, an appetite suppressant. It's not really a junk food problem as I can curb that ok (though I do on occasion have junk food), but portion control! Food is my emotional crutch esp since I live and am alone. It's the only comfort for me, which is not good. I pick it up on Mon so we'll see for me too!

^^^ Feel free to pm me. My memory is meh and I may forget to update you. I may wait a week from when I pick it up. I want letro completely out before I start something else that may have se's.

hi karz

Chec with oncologist to see if you can take an anti histamine

All the best bright

kars72, I do not have cystic pimples but my skin gets rashy, burning and itchy, to the point where showering made me cry.

A dermatologist prescribed a steroidal cream, which helped, but I can only use it 2 weeks at a time. Overuse thins the skin.

I found help with a spray called Dr. Soother's. A doctor friend of mine makes it. It's for any skin irritation: bug bites, etc. The doctor said the formula is one that drug store pharmacists used to compound for patients. There aren't many compounding drug stores now, so he sells it. It's not very expensive, less than $10 shipped. It seems to calm down my eczema as much as the prescription cream. Amazon was out last time I checked, but you can order it direct with a simple Google search. I would post the link but don't want to get dinged for trying to sell something. My skin is feeling much better since I have been using it. But your doctor should maybe have a look.

I have taken phentermine in the past and it has helped my appetite. I hope it helps those who are taking it. As I see it, there are several problems we face with Femara. First, joint pain prevents many of us from vigorous exercise. Second, many of us crave sweets or other unhealthy foods. Third, we need adequate nutrition and it's often difficult to get that with limited calories. Fourth, many of our doctors lecture us about slowing metabolism and menopause, instead of helping. I told one doctor to stop shaming me and start helping me. It was because of my diligence that I was able to keep my weight gain to 20 pounds. Was she only going to help me if I abandoned all restraint and gained 50 lbs,? That would be like refusing to treat my cancer until it had spread.

Phentermine can have side effects like crying or fatigue when it wears off each day. But it does help.

I'm having luck with reduced appetite with my amphetamines, but the scale isn't moving much after two weeksand I'm still craving sugar. It's so unhealthy and I wish I could control it.

Karz

Unless there are open sores, I would like to recommend pure Tea Tree Oil. I have used it for decades on my itchy, flaky scalp and I get immediate relief.

1. Buy only pure oil.

2. Dab it on throughout your scalp. Cover your head with a bandanna or something.

3. Follow up with Desert Essence Tee Tree oil shampoo. If I have a super itchy scalp, I let the oil stay on all night before I shampoo. It's strong, though!!

You can easily find Tee Tree Oil in the health food store. It is expensive, but a tiny bottle lasts forever.

I love Desert Essence Tee Oil shampoo and conditioner. If I don't do the oil treatment, I let the shampoosoak in for a while before rinsing it

I get a lot of relief from this regime and there are no nasty chemicals.

Hello friends,

I saw the BCN (breast cancer nurse) today and my understanding was i am to get a prescription for Tamoxifen as my 5 years was up on Letrozole. She was a little confused as to why I was being put on Tamoxifen and asked me why I thought I was as it had been decided at a MDT that i was to change (I am assuming with the full knowledge of my BS).

I said I thought it was because I am osteopenic (as a result of Coeliac disease and Letrozole - I guess)and that's why I was being moved to Tamoxifen. She asked if I would like to make an appt with my surgeon and I said i would, so she is going to arrange that.

I talked about the 10 year study for Letrozole - she said the oncologist is currently writing up the guidelines on further usage after 5 years and the research will be released some time soon.

I am a bit confused - and am in the UK.

Any thoughts?

I was supposed to be on the 10 year Letro plan. I went in saying I can't do 10 more days, much less 10 years. AIs now are being rx'd to high risk IIIs like myself for 10 years as studies have found that it does help. Who knows. I couldn't do it after 5 weeks. Started back on last night.

gardengypsy- I quit letro starting last Fri and gave myself till last night for it to get out of my system when I took a tamox pill. I feel much better not being on letro. I expect to get the same se's I had on tamox before but at least I didn't feel like utter shit and so many aches and pains. My head fuzziness was probably the worse, coupled with being sleepy feeling dopey all the time. But then for some they don't have se's or nothing bothersome. My pcp was on Femara for her bc dx'd in 2004 and she felt ok on it. I gave it a try. I'm relieved to feel better after stopping it. Hopefully my hair will stop shedding so much. On tamox it wasn't coming out in droves.

I don't blame ya gardengypsy. While I feel better, I can't even do combovers in some areas anymore. Very depressing.

I don't know what happened with me, but I had major hair loss when I started Femara. Went off for a month in December. When I started back, I expected more shedding, but ... none. In fact, my hair and nails are growing very fast. I always use my fingernail length as a gauge. When I was on Afinitor and on my early days of Femara, I had very little nail growth. Now, I'm having to trim my nails every two weeks, they are so long. I still have to wear a halo hair piece. I do keep polish on my nails at all times. They are too weak for me to go bare. I am not sure if the "vacation" from Femara helped.

I looked at my dose of Ritalin the doctor prescribed for fatigue and saw that it's far less than the recommended dose for ADD patients. I'm going to talk to my doctor about upping the dose. I'm also going to create a separate discussion, for others on AIs who may be taking stimulants or considering it. So join me there

I had no idea that Ritalin can be prescribed for the fatigue. If my energy doesn't boost before it's time to go back to work, I may ask for it.

For those of you thinking about asking for Ritalin, be sure you don't have any BP or heart problems. It sounded good to me for the fatigue I have, so I looked up the side effects and it's definitely a no no if you have any blood pressure or heart issues. Of course, I would hope you doctor would know that and not prescribe it.

Faith

Artista, decades ago in my 20s I did phendimetrazine (given by an osteopath who operated a diet-pill-mill). I actually thought that at 5’3” and 137 I was obese. If only I’d let well enough alone! I quit after I was getting involuntary muscle spasms and my hearing kept shutting on & off. After I became a mom, over the years I tried Redux (worked wonderfully until it was yanked from the market and might have caused a little left ventricular thickening, though my doctors don’t think it’s enough to be considered clinically significant), Meridia (which made my hypertension so uncontrollable I kept getting rejected for blood donation even when not anemic), and eventually Wellbutrin (depression runs in the family and I had PPD until my son was 1-1/2). Still on that for craving-control, though it’s not as effective now that I’m on Letrozole. There’s a new combo drug—a lower dose of generic Wellbutrin combined with a form of naloxone, aka Narcan (thought to occupy endorphin receptors that normally crave food or opiate rewards, but supposedly not enough to induce euphoria). My shrink says it doesn’t have enough bupropion and that it is still a form of opioid. My guess is that a stimulant like Phentermine would jack up my blood pressure and/or increase the risk of arrhythmia (having had 3 palpitation episodes while taking a Z-Pack, that is now a concern).

Nope—except for perhaps metformin, if the statins I’ll probably need due to letrozole hike my glucose as well—it looks like I’m gonna have to kick it old-school to shed a little more weight.

For your knee OA, have you considered replacements? They changed my life. If I hadn’t had my knees replaced two years before bc, I might be over 250 lbs. by now. There are also “unloader braces” that are custom-fit to shift your weight to the less-damaged side of your knee. Mine bought me a year between tearing my meniscus and my R TKR, and my insurance paid 100%. (Hyaluronic acid shots didn’t do a damn thing other than hurt like hell and drain my wallet—insurance considered them experimental).