When did you start AI?

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MindiG66
MindiG66 Member Posts: 56
edited March 2021 in Hormonal Therapy - Before, During, and After

Well, I'm 7 radiation treatments away from closing up this part of treatment! My MO will have me begin Letrozole in April and he said just to wait a couple of weeks after my last radiation to give myself a minute to breathe.

Well, in my enneagram 1, A-type personality kinda way, I'd like to just start on April 1 LOL which is technically not a couple weeks past my last radiation. I'm sure it's not a critical deal, or is it?

I'd be curious to know how long after you completed surgery, or chemo or radiation finished before starting AI!

Thanks for your input.

Also - I'm 5 years out of menopause and PTL sailed through surgery, chemo and radiation with little to no issues whatsoever! I consider myself very fortunate and my MO said he doesn't expect the wheels to fall off with the AI!

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  • FindingOptimism
    FindingOptimism Member Posts: 67
    edited March 2021

    My MO had me start 3 days after radiation ended. She didn’t insist on this but that was how the appointment timing worked out. In retrospect, I would give myself 3-4 weeks to recover from radiation before I started. I had a significant number of early side effects and it was hard to know whether they were related to the tamoxifen or radiation. Also, I was more fatigued from the radiation than I would admit so dealing effectively with the side effects was a challenge. I think if I had had a bit of breathing room to recover my mindset going into the drugs might have been more positive. As a counter argument, I might have bee more bitter if I had truly begun feeling like myself and then regressed.

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  • ThreeTree
    ThreeTree Member Posts: 709
    edited March 2021

    Mindi - I finished radiation in "late-mid" November of 2019 and I had gotten fatigued. The oncologist wrote the prescription around early- mid December and preferred that I start then, but I put it off a month and began in mid January of 2020. I did not want to start something with "unknowns" during holiday time either, as I was determined to enjoy that time after a year of chemo, surgery, and radiation. I am really glad that I did put off the start. I had a pretty good Thanksgiving that year, as was relieved to be done with rads and then beginning to get some energy back. By about Christmas, I was feeling much better and continued to do so on through New Year's. The first two weeks in Jan 2020 I really felt like my old self again and it gave me hope and inspiration that maybe I could just get better, have good luck with this, etc. Once I started the AI, I felt like crap and continue to do so, and sometimes it is only knowing that I had those real good two weeks that keeps me going, and I think that there is a "real me" still buried there somewhere under all these drugs and that someday she will might emerge again. Waiting can really help you determine what side effects come from what. You are talking a couple of weeks, well I took a couple of months.

    I haven't heard about the Enneagram since the 90's I don't think!

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  • muska
    muska Member Posts: 1,195
    edited March 2021

    I started AI before radiation - see the dates in my profile- and it was just fine

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  • Juju-mar
    Juju-mar Member Posts: 211
    edited March 2021

    I just finished chemo and asked to start AI before radiation. My MO and RO are ok with me starting it a few weeks after chemo. I have already gone thru menopause, so I know what to expect. Good luck to you.

    Julie

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  • MindiG66
    MindiG66 Member Posts: 56
    edited March 2021

    Thank you so much for your input! It helps a lot! Sounds like there is not an absolute 'standard' of when to begin. I think since I am feeling great I will probably start April 1!

    All the best~Mindi

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