Arimidex + foor and ankle swelling

Well, Aussiejan, I do have some swelling of my fingers and my feet which I feel is attributable to the Arimidex. But it sounds like yours is a tad more. Are we talking indentable, and progressing up your lower legs?



An old medical saying about edema is look to heart, liver and kidneys. Did you have any other chemotherapy other than Taxol? Adriamycin is a big heart culprit as you probably know. Do you know how your creatinine is for your kidneys, and your liver functions are?



Taxol (I had Docetaxol) can cause much feet swelling and nerve damage. But it's been since February, so I would think it's effect on swelling has passed.



If it's a lot of edema you're talking about, why don't you try to get in with a cardiologist. They see patients for swelling all the time.



Good luck to you,

Tender

Sorry, Dear One,

There ARE variations...

Maybe your edema will LEAVE forever next month!

I hope so.

BTW, my rings have been in the box for a year now.Before that I could still get the larger ones on.

For heavens sake!

Jan, YES it's from Arimidex!!I'm on Femara, which  has edema as one of the first side effects on the information sheet.

Me, I've had edema since I began AI.It keeps getting worse, is the thing.My shoes havent fit me since I began AI.Over 4 years ago.

I had to get new, bigger shoes.(But I couldnt replace some of my favorites.

In summer's heat, my swollen ankles would puff out over my running shoes by the time I finished my walk.

Last summer my edema was so bad, myLEGS swelled too.My onc gave me Lasix-strong stuff.First time I took it I had to stay home all day.Going to the bathroom.

Next time, not so much.Third time almost no result, and then it didnt work at all, for me.He had me taking it every few days, hoping I'd nt become tolerant to it.

The only cure was going to bed, getting my feet up.In a REALLY coldly A/C-ed room.So then every hour I had to get up & go to bathroom, as the edema went away.For the night.Next day 2 hours after I got up, it was right back again.Some triple digit days I would actually put on elastic stockings.Feels horrible in the heat, but skin hurts when it's streched that tightly with fluid.My onc finally gave me a heart function scan (MUGA).He was sure it was from Femara, but had to be positive my heart wasnt in failure!(It was fine!So--medical proof the edema is from femara.) I have the edema summer and winter.But it's less in cool weather.(Maybe I move to Alaska?)

So yes, I believe your edema is from Arimidex.I'm very familiar with it.

Sorry.Maybe yours will go away, instead of being like mine.I hope so.

Joan

Hi,  After one year, I am off of Femara for a week and my side effects are disappearing.  I have had serious swelling in a foot joint to the point I was told I needed surgery.  My pain is already less, and I'm hoping the swelling will go down also.  I jogged today for the first time in six months.  Just today I realized how much pain I have been in because it is going away. My wrists don't hurt, I can open cans, etc.  My onc never told me it wasn't from Femara.  In fact, she looked at my foot and listened to my pain symptoms and said, "I'm afraid it is from Femara."

At the risk of getting slammed, I think it's important not to blame everything bad in our bodies on aromatase inhibitors we take.  In a study of women who had already taken tamoxifen, letrozole compared to placebo did not lead to that many serious side effects (of course, if you have one, it's serious!).  As a person who does medical research (not on breast cancer I want to emphasize), you have to find a base rate in the general population before you can really talk about side effects.  That is, you have to know, what percentage of women who had breast cancer would have insomnia, edema, joint pain, all that stuff, if they did NOT take AIs, and then compare it to women who take AIs. When you look up side effects of drugs, it is often unclear what is the comparison group, and there is a tendency to overestimate the SEs of the drug for this reason. In the case of the study in question, that would "sort of" be the response of women on placebo (not exactly, because they had already taken Tamoxifen, which has bone strenthening effects as well as its own side effect profile).  It would not be ethical to compare letrozole WITHOUT tamoxifen beforehand to placebo, because this would be witholding effective treatment, so researchers can't really get a real baseline using a placebo.  The trial was discontinued after 2.5 years because Femara was already showing a significant benefit in terms of recurrence.  Some thought it should not have been discontinued because longer term side effects AFTER TAMOX were even less certain than if the trial had been completed.  The research now (at least in my understanding, again, it's not my field) is showing that the SE profiles of women on Femara (which has the least joint pain of the AIs) are worse than previously thought, even in a recently done randomized prospective trial.  UP to 15% of women stop AIs because of joint pain, and the joint pain may be very significant in up to 50% of women.  Joint swelling is not uncommon.  For this latest study, google, "Prospective characterization of musculoskeletal symptoms in early stage breast cancer patients treated with aromatase inhibitors."

I know I told myself that I could take whatever pain I had.  Indeed, I continued to exercise despite all my pain and if it was just pain, I think I would stay on the Femara.  But the swelling in the foot joint which seemed to indicate a need for surgery was too much for me.  I am fairly low risk, and I am going on Tamox if my CYP2D6 test comes back ok.  Otherwse, G-- help me, I dont know what I'll do.  My onc is pretty sure if I go on Aromasin or Arimidex the joint pain will be even worse than on Femara.

Thanks for listening

Cheryl

I will be starting Arimidex soon and so am trying to find out all I can about it.  I already have joint and muscle pain (osteoarthristis) so am not looking forward to more. 

Has anyone found a way to relieve the pain?

Does the CYP2D6 test apply to Arimidex (btw is the abbreviation for it here AI)

TIA

Hi Aussie,

I'm so sorry you're experiencing discomfort from Arimidex.  Sometimes I feel guilty because I've been taking the same med for 4 yrs and am feeling fine....my only concern is to stay as long as possible on Arimidex to hopefully prevent a recurrence.

My heart goes out to anyone suffering side effects on an AI.  Some do, some don't....guess I'm fortunate to fall into the "some don't" category.

Best wishes 

A little bit of caution on some of the side effects such as the swelling of feet and ankles while on Arimidex.  I thought that the swelling I was experiencing in my feet and ankles were normal problems from the Arimidex and when I called my oncologist's office, his nurse told me to just take some over the counter water pills and if it persisted that they would probably have to give me a perscription strength.  I tried for months to deal with it myself and felt very frustrated as my whole body was swollen with my ankles looking like I had sprained them.  Elevating them did not help at all.  When I finally called my oncologist's office again, the nurse said that what I had been experiencing wasn't normal and I needed to contact my primary care physician.  Long story short, my primary care physician gave me a blood test to check some vitals organs (thankfully they all checked out fine) and concluded that the Arimidex had raised my blood pressure and caused the swelling.  He also put me on arthritis medication to deal with joint swelling and extreme pain that I have been experiencing while on Arimidex.  Just thought I would add this in case someone else thought what they were dealing with was normal but may need some other help.  I don't feel quite so much like the Michelin Man anymore...I still feel like I have some swelling but not like it was and my blood pressure is back under control.

When I was on anaatrozole sometimes my tongue would feel fat. I think it was a reaction to the drug.