.. New Flower .. come out, come out .. Thinking about you, How are you doing ???

My dear friend Vicki
Dear Vicki,
Thank you for thinking about me. I hope your healing and recovery is going well and you are feeling stronger every day.
I am doing very well. I has been 3 moths since I started my new job and I have been pleased with results. Tomorrow we will have a Breast Cancer Awareness day at work and I am going to wear pink bandana, souvenir from Aventis, Taxotere's drug-maker, which was given to me 2 years ago by Chemo nurses during my 5th infusion.

On Monday I had a consultation with a female urologist, who confirmed a significant depletion of estrogen from my body. I guess my new regimen Zoladex plus Arimidex has been very effective and goal of having no estrogen has been accomplished. She suggested to use topical estradiaol to solve several problems, which my oncologist absolutely opposed. I now have to make a difficult choice between life and quality of life...
The 65K insurance question has not been solved yet.

Wishing you and all of my pink sisters nice weekend.
Love,
New Flower

SIROD said:

Estring
Dear New Flower,

I used "Estring" with my oncologist blessing after my 2nd recurrence when I was NED. Quality of Life is what she believed in. It was suggested by my gynecologist. Being on AI's depletes your body of estrogen can have some very serious side effects. He said, it wasn't only for the vagina, but also for the whole plumbing area.

Estring stands for estrogen ring and placed in the vagina for 3 months. You don't feel it and neither will your partner. My gynecologist stated that though the manufactures stated that the blood won't pick up estrogen, he thought it did about 1%. The product was excellent for me and I used it for 8 years until my 3rd recurrence.

Depleted of estrogen, I fell, a very unremarkable fall but fractured 3 vertebras. So AI's are wonderful, but do have some serious side effects.

Good luck,

SIROD

Quality of life and Depletion of estrogen
Hi Doris,
Thank you very much for your suggestions and sharing your own experience. It is a very important issue often neglected by medical oncologists. Unfortunately, quality of life problems do not generate much empathy. Being a poor metabolizer of Tamoxifen I do not have many choices. I will talk to my oncologist about topical/vaginal estrogen again when I see her next Tuesday before getting another awful Zoladex shot...

Wishing you the best

New Flower