Doing Well on Aromatase Inhibitors (AIs)

Laughing,

Try Physical Therapy to deal with where you hurt and build strength. PT has been a blessing for me and I have learned what to do to battle the pain.

Vicky

hi Ladies. Anyone know if I can drink while on anastrozole. Heading out for vacation and was thinking about have a few whiile I am camping.

Your thoughts?

Yes, you can drink if want to (which might not be very much, because alcohol is fat which feeds estrogen....sigh).

I kept moving and found my aches & pains leveled off after about 6 months. I think it took that much time for my body to adjust to the lack of estrogen and to rebound from the lingering after-effects of surgery/chemo/rads.

laughing gull, I started three weeks ago, and I had the same thing happen at first too. Was so strange, how it hopped from place to place. But thankfully for me, it settled and although I still feel it at times it is not all day every where. So hopefully it settles soon for you too!

Hi to all-I have been on Femara for 6 months-doing well with only mild side effects--my feet and sometimes my knees hurt in the am--clears pretty tolerably with advil,tylenol and moving around-I know I need to get back to exercising--and I will- has been tough to get motivated with all the heat and humidity this summer-turns me limp-.I also have some sleep disturbance but that seems to be improving--taking melatonin and remove my 3 dogs's collars so dont get woken up with their tags rattling--and yes I know would sleep better without them on the bed-but that's not going to happen-lol!

I did cold capping so didnt lose my hair ,but am noticing perhaps a tad more shedding the last month when I wash my hair-do not notice any day to day shedding.

so given that antihormonals cut the risk of recurrence by over 40 percent--I will deal with the effects!

Hi LIFE-

I am interested in this too. my hand stiffness and aches started while I was taking tamoxifen. I started exemestane a couple weeks ago, and still have the stiffness/aches. Onc basically said it goes with the territory when taking AIs/ tamoxifen. In addition my knuckles swelled to the point I cannot wear my wedding rings anymore, and some knuckles are knobby/misshapen. Flexing and bending the fingers loosens them up a little, but not much. I would love to hear from anyone who has a solution to this.

edited to add-the good news for me is I feel so much better on exemestane than I did on tamoxifen. Took a month off tamox to clean out before starting the AI. Now I do not have the overwhelming fatigue, loss of energy and overall feeling of crappiness. I hope this continues.

Hi, all -

I'm now nearly 3 months in on Arimidex. Have some joint stiffness in the mornings - mostly in fingers and ankles, and occasional knuckle swelling. Hot flashes hit me mainly in late afternoon/evening, which is also when I sometimes feel fatigue.

I take Omeprazole, Naproxen, Effexor 25 mg and Claritin in the AM, and find that once I shower and get moving I feel pretty good. I do my PT exercises in the evening and take Melatonin and Ativan along with my Arimidex at bedtime.

Had a couple of days of pain in my right hip joint after sitting at work all day this week, but was able to stretch it out and minimize it quite a bit. I would of course prefer to have no side effects and be taking fewer meds. But it's all manageable, so I still feel I'm doing well.

I am counting my lucky stars re Arimidex because  have not skipped a pill since Nov5, 2017..  Almost 10 months checked off out of 120 months.   Joint pain is inevitable due to getting older. Yes damned if you do damned if you don't but I ain't going down without a fight. my step counter says 13448 for the day.   Find myself needing about 7000 steps a day minimum

Hi ladies. 

I am very thankful so many are sharing their experiences here. This is very useful!

2FUN, I am only two weeks in the anastrozole wagon and I haven’t noticed any increase in hot flashes. I am on vacation in Europe in a really cool (temperature) place and I swim in the (cold) ocean daily ant that has helped with hot flashes a lot. Two weeks into being here and seeing this reduction in hot flashes I started anastrozole and it didn’t make any difference. So for me the strategy for hot flashes going forward  will be trying to stay cool. No sweaters indoors. No hoodies. No hats. Some coldish showers maybe. 

LaughingGull

It has been 3 weeks since stopping anastrozole. Im going to re-start and see how it goes. We have a FABU local breast Cancer coalition, and they are running free classes on "Surviving and Thriving on AIs" First class is next week, so we will see how it goes.

2Fun-- the class sounds interesting! Please share with us what you take away from it-- Thanks!

Laughing that is a good report. What time ofday do you take it? Any sleep issues? (And thanks re: Labor Day! I just need it to cool down a little. We had 90s most of last week and will be in the 90s again this week. Ugh.)

Great news. Got my bone density results after starting Arimidex on 4 April 2017. I have had 2 Prolia injections. The report reads "definite improvement in the mid lumbar and the right femoral neck, and only a slight decrease in the left femoral neck. Overall this reading shows a trend of improvement."

Dancing on my eyelashes.

Coach Vicky

Vicky, that's great news. My MO wants to putme on Prolia injections too. Have you had side effects from the Prolia?

Thanks, Laughing. I keep reading about sleeping issues with AIs and want to have a plan in place when I start them. I sleep pretty well for a person of my gender/age/hormonal status and would hate to have that interrupted for 5-10 years. . .