Aromatase Inhibitor and just walking away.

Brutersmom, congratulations! Great news on the weight loss! Consider joining the Let's Post Our Daily Exercise thread if you haven't already. Great support for sticking to exercise!

what is the magnesium supplements you are taking?

Thanks Kira, my problem is I had occult tumor and one positive node. The node was 2.1 cm after six month LEtrozole and 3mm after surgery and pathology. So I'm not quite sure how to fill out the form? I put 3mm in the tumor section because it wants an amount, even though there was none found and 1 positive node and I get 1% and 3% for 5 and 10 years- what do you think? Good guess? ErPr POS.

Just got back from lept and I'm supposed to add swimming. I like swimming, I don't like public pools....

Bruthersmom, again you have a great doc.

Thx all

Kira, no primary tumor so no oncotype. My Mo said last week their calculator has been down for a year! She said sonething about a British one, but I was asking her to give me the percentage of recurrence if I stay off the Letrozole. I doubt I'm going to get that

Well maybe I'll print out the British one and and ask her to help me to fill it in but that won't be until late Oct. and it still won't reference recurrence...

I wasn't sure if there was more than one British calculator.

Musclechemistry.com???Marijen, I would hardly take a bodybuilders' forum—especially one with ads for supplements--as authoritative when it comes to describing the pharmaco-chemistry of various AIs. I still say it's more properly “non-steroidal," not “non-suicidal." Especially when oncology and pharmacology—both for doctors & patients—sites say “non-STEROIDAL.” (Drugs are chemicals, incapable of committing suicide or even self-destructing—they need another substance or process to “destroy,” much less alter them). Sites like that are notorious for misspellings. Heck, even among lay posters on our forums, look at all the misspellings of “mastectomy,” “tamoxifen,” etc.

Arimidex, Aromasin, and Femara (aka anastrozole, exemestane, and letrozole) will all have similar profiles & descriptions in their package inserts—same contraindications, symptoms, warnings, etc. Some people can tolerate one kind better than the other. And even among various generic formulations of the same drug, inactive ingredients affect different people differently.

And anything that gets your heart rate into the “target" range for your weight & age for >10 minutes is “cardio." (Some people do timed circuit training on weight machines to kill two birds with one stone). There are plenty of sites to help you calculate it—and there's a poster for just that on the wall at my gym. Of course, 30 minutes is better. Take your pulse and walk faster or uphill (or climb stairs) if it's too normal. Needn't be 7 days/wk either—and mixing it up (walking one day, biking—regular or stationary, elliptical, rowing, jogging if your joints are okay, swimming, etc.) helps your body adapt and works different muscle groups along with your heart. (Do as I say, not as I do—or fail to do).

Yes, “non-suicidal" IS a misspelling, or at least an ignorant misnomer coined by semi-informed laymen who are essentially abusing a drug whose only valid purpose is either for adjuvant breast cancer therapy or as part of the prep for in vitro fertilization. There is no such thing as a “non-suicidal" drug. I never said that bodybuilders don't use aromatase inhibitors, nor that they don't know why they would work for that off-label purpose. Letrozole*, a non-steroidal AI, would be less harmful for them because the steroidal one, exemestane, would have more intense and dangerous side effects in men. AIs of any kind (and withdrawal from them) do not cause “estrogen surge" in postmenopausal women, at least not in the relatively low doses we are prescribed.

"The boys" are idiots and are cruisin' for a bruisin' down the line. I still can't believe you are seeking medical information from a bodybuilders' website. I know we can get frustrated sometimes when there are limits to what legitimate medical science can do to ameliorate side effects, and that we want to get answers any way and anywhere we can, but it is really dangerous to do that. It's only one step removed from consulting quacks that prey on cancer patients.

*Edited per Jennie’s correction—I was so hung up on the stupidity of the term “non-suicidal” that I accidentally referred to Exemestane, rather than Letrozole, as “non-steroidal.”

Getting back to the subject of this discussion. I spoke with my nurse coordinator she agreed I need to stop Arimidex immediately. With breaking out everywhere with dermatitis since I started it.

A call is in to discuss an alternative so tomorrow I'll be speaking with my oncologist and her again to make some decisions

Marijen well I guess I'll not be using any of the anti hormonals. My oncologist has decided my SEs are to extreme

Hi KB 870 - just got in - I'll post it in a few minutes. My archilles are starting to hurt and my feet hurt bad. Dr. said stop but I've been tapering, a friend says I should do what I think is right for my body, don't want that estrogen surge! I stopped before and it felt better pretty quickly.

Here it is pg 477 thread for middle-age Christian ladies July 23.

Just the paragraph that applies.

I was admitted from the ER and EKG, bloodwork & CT scan were done so pulmonary embolism was ruled out. Once in my room boodwork & EKG were ordered all through the night & into the next day and a heart monitor was on for the duration. The doctor who had rounds was an endocrinologist. He said that a heart attack was ruled out but that being on the Exemestane played havoc with my body. He spoke of it with disgust. He said that when you mess up the hormones so badly it can mimic a heart attack or pulmonary embolism and more and that it may take me MANY more months to get straightened up and feel good. (I went off of the cancer meds after 1 year of them just withing this 2 weeks). So people are asking me if I am feeling better now and I have to admit I don't... as nothing was done - or can be done - for me. Just time. (

We need them to be more assertive in thyroid testing too. Just a tsh test is bs IMHO.

I was off tamoxifen for 6 months and my hormones were definitely not back to normal. When I went on Arimidex I had no hotflashes which is why I believe this.

There are drugs that raise glucose, furosemide/lasix is one. My ANA was negative a few years ago, then it went to 40 which I think is borderline? No mention was made of it ever. I can't help thinking that it's all in the immune system which I don't know much about. I had one dr. Give me synthroid 88 six days a week, then my tsh was up on one test. Iwonder if that could be caused by missing a pill now and then. So the next dr. changed my dose to 75 7 days a week. And I had to point out that is practically the same amount but then tsh was down to .14 - and second test it was up to .41. I like it low. Too bad there isn't a home test

This is a great book. Starts with history of cancer research, ends with metabolic theory of cancer. I have two hours of listening to go

Hi,

I'm listening to Tripping Over the Truth: The Return of the Metabolic Theory of Cancer Illuminates a New and Hopeful Path to a Cure by Travis Christofferson, narrated by Clay Lomakayu on my Audible app. Try Audible and get it here:

https://www.audible.com/pd?asin=B01C3BJ0KE&source_...

Scared this is the link for the Ariimidex forum.
https://community.breastcancer.org/forum/78/topics...

I was on letrozole and the pains were equal on both sides. You could be having pain from bone loss or some kind of pressure on your vertebrae, or a dysfunctional hip. Or sciatica. It doesn't seem right to me that she blames it on an aromatse inhibor.