What helps you through your hot flashes?

Apaugh
Apaugh Member Posts: 850 Member
in Breast Cancer #1

 I counted 58 of them yesterday.   I am on Anastrozole and still doing my Herceptin until Aug. 2017. 

Not my first rodeo with hot flashes but this is nuts!

Nurses reply is..well it is working. 

Considering rolling in the snow next,

Annie

Comments

  • VickiSam
    VickiSam Member Posts: 9,079 Member
    #2
    Sorry to say - layers of clothing

    I just stripped down to cooler clothes - layer's ///  tank top / long sleeved cotton jackets -- NO a polyester--Also, I kept a fan going at night - light blankets

    yes those hot flashes are terrible took some time for me to get over them - even after my chemotherapy it took several years to get back to normal .. or what now is my NEW NORMAL is now .

    Vicki Sam

  • msgreen1958
    msgreen1958 Member Posts: 3
    #3
    VickiSam said:

    Sorry to say - layers of clothing

    I just stripped down to cooler clothes - layer's ///  tank top / long sleeved cotton jackets -- NO a polyester--Also, I kept a fan going at night - light blankets

    yes those hot flashes are terrible took some time for me to get over them - even after my chemotherapy it took several years to get back to normal .. or what now is my NEW NORMAL is now .

    Vicki Sam

    Hot Flashes---

    I too use a fan at night...It is so hard to get a good night sleep because of those flashes..I am taking letrozole at this time... What is too funny, one second I am Hot as an oven, next second, I am cold...is this kind of what you ladies are going through as well?

  • TraciInLA
    TraciInLA Member Posts: 1,994 Member
    #4
    Been there, Annie

    I highly, highly recommend talking with your OB/GYN about your hot flashes -- it's my own personal experience that an OB/GYN spends much more time working with women with hot flashes than oncology professionals do, and, quite frankly, may take them more seriously.  The reply "Well, it's working" is NOT acceptable!!!  Of course, anything your OB/GYN recommends should also be run by your oncologist, but OB/GYNs just have more experience with hot flashes, and more tools for helping women with them.

    I've been on Tamoxifen for 7 years, and my hot flashes started the 2nd night I took it.  I was only 40, and had never had a hot flash in my life before then.  My OB/GYN, with my oncologist's blessing, suggested that vitamin E helps some women.  I've been taking 400 IU (the standard dosage of vitamin E you buy at any drugstore), twice a day, and it's by no means a miracle cure, but it does help lessen them.

    Now that I've started into menopause, my hot flashes are getting worse, and both my OB/GYN and my oncologist are recommending a very low dose of an antidepressant.  My oncologist has suggested 5 mg of Lexapro, and I have an appointment with my OB/GYN in a couple of weeks to get her opinion on that.  I'm strongly considering it, just to get me through the next couple of years.

    Maybe this gives you a few ideas to talk over with your doctors?

    Traci

  • Apaugh
    Apaugh Member Posts: 850 Member
    edited December 2016 #5
    Good suggestions, thanks...

    Thank you ladies.  I appriciate you so much.  This site makes me feel like I am never alone.  It helps to talk to people who have been there, done that, or doing it too. 

    In 2010 I had a complete hysterectomy and of course, that brings on hot flashes.  They tapered off over the years.   I thought they were bad but no, proven wrong.  My cancer found Feb. of 2016.  Bi-lateral mastectomy, high dose chemo and now I am on the Herceptin treatments until Aug. 2017.  A month ago, I started the anti-estrogen pill. 

    It is winter and I think summer nightgowns are fine and when I go out, it is shorts and T's or leggings and long T's.  I cant stand to wear a coat.  The fan has always been my friend and I keep my bedroom window open all the time now. It is 30 degrees out and I love it.  Homemade rice socks out of the freezer are great.  I drink ice water like it is going out of style.  Luke warm showers only.   I am dreading summer.  Indiana is hot and humid in the summer.   

    Yes Traci, I am on Lexapro.  I have been for years.  Too much stress from my son's cancer, my mother's cancer, and the early hysterectomy.  I plan to stay on it.  I think it keeps me from choking people.  I will call my OB/GYN and get an opinion, great suggestion!

     If anyone else has any other suggetions, please feel free to chime in!  

    Hugs,

    Annie

     

     

  • Sasu
    Sasu Member Posts: 39
    #6
    Goodness!

    I never thought of counting those hot flashes! aren't they a pain!  I bought the folding style fans and had them stashed everywhere around the house and always had them in my purse or pocket when I left the house.

    I hated just being damp all the time....yuck.  Cool showers.  Didn't wear hats in winter even though I didn"t have hair. Cotton clothing helped me. Always have ice water handy.....if not to drink to stick your hand into.   Fan in the bedroom....window open.....snow blowing in through the open window. I remember growling at my husband of 40 years. The man has been bald for years.  I told him he could wear a parka and wool cap to bed, but if he shut that window i was going to get the chainsaw and remove the damn wall!  He laughed at me.  He's still here.  The window is still open......tonight it's about ten degrees out. 

     

  • peony
    peony Member Posts: 306 Member
    edited December 2016 #7
     I probably shouldn't be here

     I probably shouldn't be here because I have never had a hot flash. Not menopausal or after Anastrozole. So, that shows you, every side effect is not for everyone.

  • Apaugh
    Apaugh Member Posts: 850 Member
    #8
    peony said:

     I probably shouldn't be here

     I probably shouldn't be here because I have never had a hot flash. Not menopausal or after Anastrozole. So, that shows you, every side effect is not for everyone.

    so true

    That is what I like about these discussion boards.  They show the unique way cancer effects each and every one of us. 

     

  • Double Whammy
    Double Whammy Member Posts: 2,832 Member
    #9
    peony said:

     I probably shouldn't be here

     I probably shouldn't be here because I have never had a hot flash. Not menopausal or after Anastrozole. So, that shows you, every side effect is not for everyone.

    Ditto what Peony says.

    I'm absolutely no help here.  I think I slept through menopause and had no problems in either Anastrozole or Tamoxifen.

  • 1stTimeStage2
    1stTimeStage2 Member Posts: 38 Member
    #10
    I thought Lexapro and Tamox were a no no?

    I did not tolerate Lupron at all and wanted to try Tamox but my onologist will not let me try it until I am off Lexapro. She suggested Effexor as the only anti-d that is compatible with Tamox.

  • RozHopkins
    RozHopkins Member Posts: 578 Member
    #11
    After chemo at around 54

    After chemo at around 54 years old my hot flashes were all day and night constantly.  Chemo at that age is well known to bring on 'the change' aggressivelay and Tamoxifen side effect is flashes, my periods stopped during the chemo.  Ceiling fan over the bed is 'heaven' and a must, please get one if you haven't now, worth its weight in gold.  100% cotton sheets.  If you can a fan at work on a desk or such.  Can't now nor then wear PJs of any type.  I dress in layers nearly always cotton and linen.  Always had a hand held fan close at hand, put one my handbag and others dotted around the house.  The bed would be drenched through the mattress protector to the mattress.  I would drip.   It was a horrible time and did last for some years I took Tamoxifen only for one year and came off it.  Was told only Effexor or its generic is known to help the flashes (anti depressant) this suited me as I suffer from depression and have done so since 12 year old so just swapped over to it.   Much, much better now at 60.  Coffee, alcohol, spicey food, can give you flashes.  Now no where near as bad, humidity really irritated it but dry heat much better as in Arizona.  Very irritating time..........   ggrrrr...........

  • Clementine_P
    Clementine_P Member Posts: 518 Member
    edited January 2017 #12
    hot flashes at night

    I used a flexible ice pack wrapped in a small towel and put it behind my neck when I slept.  It made me SO much more comfortable at night!

  • crselby
    crselby Member Posts: 441 Member
    edited February 2017 #13
    Hot flashes

     Talking about fans and ice packs and light clothing is all well and good if you're hot all the time. What does a person do when the hot flashes come and go? I'm constantly stripping down and then putting the clothes back on. My colleagues look at me like I'm nuts.  I'm fine when I first climb into bed, but if I make physical contact with my husband, Whammo, that brings in a hot flash. In fact, I'll have a hot flash just thinking about hot flashes! This is crazy…   I want out!  I took Effexor for a year and a half, and it really didn't help reduce the frequency or severity of my hot flashes. I just paid more for the drugs, and got addicted to it. I weaned myself off when I'd had enough. I feel like no one takes these complaints seriously. They're not life-threatening., so...." You will just have to get used to it."  I swear to God, if we were MEN with these complaints, there would already have been research as to what causes hot flashes and there would be real REMEDIES, not just platitudes and symptom cover ups. 

  • canevil1
    canevil1 Member Posts: 4
    #14
    Hot flashes

    This is my dilema as well. I never know when the hot flashes will happen.  I can be fine one minute and burning up the next.  As of now, I am not taking anything to help them, dont' know if there is anything.  I just deal with them as they come.

  • nabpink
    nabpink Member Posts: 4
    #15
    Hot Flashes

    My Onco put me on Celexa for Hot Flashes. also happens to be an anti depressant : )  I also worked with a reflexologist who works at Dana Farber, she was awesomw!!

    Hot flashes have been reduced to a few (10-12) times a day and the intensity is much less! Good luck and prayers!

  • disneyfan2008
    disneyfan2008 Member Posts: 6,583 Member
    #16
    I never got crazy HOT flashes

    I never got crazy HOT flashes, thankfully. MINE were more like getting embarrassed and I could feel myself getting hot slowly. I DIDN"T Even know I went through menopause, until my first Breast surgery , duriing pre-opt quetioning. LOL

     

    I am sure others here will have great advice for you.

     

    Denise

  • katfur111
    katfur111 Member Posts: 8
    #17
    hot flashes

    those T-shirts for men that control body temp. are AMAZING for hot flashes!! and i got this rag , cant remember the name of it off hand but it cools you off as it dries, and its dry, you shake it and it triggers it somehow, but that helps a lot too, but the body temp mens T-shirts and "wife beaters" are the beast i wear them under my uniform and at night it keeps you cool, get them at walmart and i buy them on ebay too. worth the money ladies! ;)

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