arbojenn-your question about femara

dmc_emmy
dmc_emmy Member Posts: 549
edited March 2014 in Breast Cancer #1
I put this in a separate post, just in case you don't revisit the other thread:

I was on Femara until May 12th (when I joined the boards here). I quit because I had ALL the side effects, from the common to the rare. I didn't even think that was possible. Plus, I had extreme mood swings and depression to top it off.

I went in to discuss my choices with my onc, and I really had no other choices (I tried Arimidex, Arommisin, and I can't use Tomoxifin due to a blood clotting disorder). We discussed another drug Avista (I think that is the name), but it was not exactly designed for bc. It's purpose is to reduce the chance of bc for those who are high risk. I cannot take this one either, due to tendency of blood clots. Since I am feeling so much better without the Femara, my onc agreed that quality of life was what was important. It didn't change my prognosis that much, since I am a 3.5 year survivor (he told me that base survivorship come the time of surgery (Jan '06). Since there was little change in my prognosis, I decided that no therapy drug was my ticket.

The withdrawal was slow, but there were no effects from stopping it. I noticed a dramatic change after about one month of being off the drug.

Hope this helps. As far as "fiddling" goes, you might want to do the fiddling with dr oversight-just a thought.
dmc

Comments

  • arbojenn
    arbojenn Member Posts: 118
    #2
    Thank you
    Thank you, dmc! What a choice for you to make! I think I would have gone the same route you did. The femara keeps on working for a while after you stop it. And as it said in the movie "terms of endearment" I'd rather have a half an hour of wonderful rather than a lifetime of nothing special. I WILL take the drug until the se's cross me over to 'nothing special.' But I will do it with a doctors consult first. You are so very wise there. And thank you for thinking of me! I am in and out--travel to my cancer center and/or my grands and their daddy and mommy to live near there, and don't check the site sometimes. I filled out the paperwork to take a leave of absence from the classroom for at least the first semester: Surgery in late August, eight to ten weeks of recovery, then rad. I would be able to go back after Thansgiving, but I am going to wait until after Christmas to give myself time to recover fully from the treatments and square things away with this Femara. (Plus, that would be a new beginning time for the kids to change teachers. We could pretend we were on the block schedule in high school!) Are you in remission now or has recurrence reared its ugly head? My brain is addled and somewhere I recall reading about recent test results for you.
  • dmc_emmy
    dmc_emmy Member Posts: 549
    #3
    arbojenn said:

    Thank you
    Thank you, dmc! What a choice for you to make! I think I would have gone the same route you did. The femara keeps on working for a while after you stop it. And as it said in the movie "terms of endearment" I'd rather have a half an hour of wonderful rather than a lifetime of nothing special. I WILL take the drug until the se's cross me over to 'nothing special.' But I will do it with a doctors consult first. You are so very wise there. And thank you for thinking of me! I am in and out--travel to my cancer center and/or my grands and their daddy and mommy to live near there, and don't check the site sometimes. I filled out the paperwork to take a leave of absence from the classroom for at least the first semester: Surgery in late August, eight to ten weeks of recovery, then rad. I would be able to go back after Thansgiving, but I am going to wait until after Christmas to give myself time to recover fully from the treatments and square things away with this Femara. (Plus, that would be a new beginning time for the kids to change teachers. We could pretend we were on the block schedule in high school!) Are you in remission now or has recurrence reared its ugly head? My brain is addled and somewhere I recall reading about recent test results for you.

    No, I'm not in remission yet...
    my drs will not say I'm in remission until my 5th year out. Since I stopped my meds, I am back on a 3 month cycle of onc visits. I guess that's a small price to pay to free of drugs. I will see where this decision leads me. In the meantime, I will enjoy being drug free. Should this bc rear it's ugly head again, I will decide what to do then.

    I hope you do better than I did in regards to your meds, most people do.
    dmc

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