Aromasin troubles--bone scan pending--need pink bus
Hello everyone,
I feel a little unsure about mooing about my problems when there are folks here dealing w/ much more difficult stuff, but here goes. All through treatment I have had trouble w/ weird or very intense side effects w/ chemo and associated meds. I had bilateral mastectomies in January 2012 finished chemo in March 2012 and radiation in May 2012. I started Tamoxifen back when I was diagnosed in Oct 2011 but was advised to stop in Jan 2012 until after the rest of my treatment was over as I developed a rapid heart rate and high blood pressure and my MO thought the Tamoxifen might be contributing. Started generic Arimidex in July 2012 and did ok for a while, just wrist and elbow pain. However, over the past several months the pain had spread to most of my joints and muscles and the fatigue was so bad I would come home for lunch and lay down for a 1/2hr, go back to work and then come home and go to bed. My MO had me stop the Arimidex. I had nasty migraines for the 1st wk, still pain on the 2nd week and then felt really good on wk 3.
I then started Aromasin. I only lasted a week w/ severe pain in my upper spine that woke me from a sound sleep and didn't go away w/ ibuprofen or tylenol. Stopped the Aromasin after just the 1wk (per MO), it has now been another week and I have pain throughout my entire spine, knee and ankle joints, and leg muscles. I'm now scheduled for a bone scan on Thursday to be sure that I don't have a spinal compresssion fracture and/or recurrance in my bones.
I've tried to be upbeat through this whole thing (including the hospitalizations for chemo side effects) but I admit I am feeling pretty discouraged. I got through everything by looking forward to being able to do "normal people" things (like gardening and projects around the house) when it was all over and that's just not happening. I am having all I can do to make it through the work day and had to call in several times last week. I am hoping that the spine pain is just another weird medication side effect d/t the aromasin, especially because it came on so fast, but I am scared that it could be bone mets. I am so very tired. Thanks for listening. My family is wonderful and they know what's going on, but I don't want to burden/worry them more than I already have w/ just how bad and discouraged I feel about all of this. I'll let you know how things turn out.
Thanks,
Penny
Comments
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Sorry for your side effects of course you are scared
Well I have been on both sides having side effectsand bone pain from estrogen-blocking therapy and having multiple mets to many bones. Please take a deep breath and hope and pray for the best. I really wish you a very good scan and be on your bus.
I also would liketo tell you that I am celebrating my 5 yeasr from initial diagnosis and 1 year from progression of my disease to my bones having mets
There is a life with mets too!!!!
Hugs to you
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Wishing you good luck on yourNew Flower said:Sorry for your side effects of course you are scared
Well I have been on both sides having side effectsand bone pain from estrogen-blocking therapy and having multiple mets to many bones. Please take a deep breath and hope and pray for the best. I really wish you a very good scan and be on your bus.
I also would liketo tell you that I am celebrating my 5 yeasr from initial diagnosis and 1 year from progression of my disease to my bones having mets
There is a life with mets too!!!!
Hugs to you
Wishing you good luck on your bone scan. I will be on the pink bus with you.
Hugs, Angie
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Thanks so much for your kind thoughtsAngie2U said:Wishing you good luck on your
Wishing you good luck on your bone scan. I will be on the pink bus with you.
Hugs, Angie
My tumor markers and other labs were fine a month ago, so I'm hoping there's a good chance that this is just the Aromasin talking. Having kind of a tought day today though, lots of pain and feeling pretty discouraged. Will be relieved to know one way or the other. I'll keep you posted.
Penny
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Praying your bone scan is
Praying your bone scan is clean. Sending prayers and hugs!
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Hoping that you will get aCypressCynthia said:Praying your bone scan is
Praying your bone scan is clean. Sending prayers and hugs!
Hoping that you will get a clean bone scan!
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Good luck tomorrow! PostPennyJ said:Thanks so much for your kind thoughts
My tumor markers and other labs were fine a month ago, so I'm hoping there's a good chance that this is just the Aromasin talking. Having kind of a tought day today though, lots of pain and feeling pretty discouraged. Will be relieved to know one way or the other. I'll keep you posted.
Penny
Good luck tomorrow! Post when you know your results.
Hugs, Diane
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Had lots of pain and
Had lots of pain and stiffness until couldn't go to gym. Changed to Armidex and doing well. Realized shoulder and spine pain was older arthritis, guessing meds can make worse. Hip pain an old problem which chiropractor takes care of. Tennis elbow which I had before. Terrible cramping especially in chest, now feel was simply lack of liquids (never drank water, do now). But at the time when everything aches, etc. you worry and I had a bone scan. All completely clear so had to calm myself down and work around different pains, ie don't do certain things to exaserbate (Sorry spelling). It work, but I. do tire easily especially a few hours after daily taking of med.
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I will be along and prayingRozHopkins said:Had lots of pain and
Had lots of pain and stiffness until couldn't go to gym. Changed to Armidex and doing well. Realized shoulder and spine pain was older arthritis, guessing meds can make worse. Hip pain an old problem which chiropractor takes care of. Tennis elbow which I had before. Terrible cramping especially in chest, now feel was simply lack of liquids (never drank water, do now). But at the time when everything aches, etc. you worry and I had a bone scan. All completely clear so had to calm myself down and work around different pains, ie don't do certain things to exaserbate (Sorry spelling). It work, but I. do tire easily especially a few hours after daily taking of med.
I will be along and praying you will get a clean scan!
Lex
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The bone scan is the easiestRozHopkins said:Had lots of pain and
Had lots of pain and stiffness until couldn't go to gym. Changed to Armidex and doing well. Realized shoulder and spine pain was older arthritis, guessing meds can make worse. Hip pain an old problem which chiropractor takes care of. Tennis elbow which I had before. Terrible cramping especially in chest, now feel was simply lack of liquids (never drank water, do now). But at the time when everything aches, etc. you worry and I had a bone scan. All completely clear so had to calm myself down and work around different pains, ie don't do certain things to exaserbate (Sorry spelling). It work, but I. do tire easily especially a few hours after daily taking of med.
The bone scan is the easiest test we have so I hope that might ease some stress. You just lay there with your clothes on while the machine goes over your whole body slowly. They will inject you with some stuff and you come back after a couple of hours to give it time to get through your system. Go have a nice lunch if you can.
Wishing you a clean bone scan!
Hugs, Angie
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How did your bone scan go?Angie2U said:The bone scan is the easiest
The bone scan is the easiest test we have so I hope that might ease some stress. You just lay there with your clothes on while the machine goes over your whole body slowly. They will inject you with some stuff and you come back after a couple of hours to give it time to get through your system. Go have a nice lunch if you can.
Wishing you a clean bone scan!
Hugs, Angie
How did your bone scan go? We're all praying for good results.
Jan
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Negative bone scan (yippee!)survivorbc09 said:How did your bone scan go?
How did your bone scan go? We're all praying for good results.
Jan
I just got back from the doctor's office and got the official word that the scan was negative! What a relief! I'm still having the upper spine pain and my MO thinks that the aromasin may have activated some inflammation in the arthritis in my spine. I've got some prednisone to take to try to decrease the inflammation and hopefully w/ that and having stopped the aromasin things will start to get better. She ordered Fareston to start in another week. It is apparently similar to Tamoxifen. So I am feeling encouraged and hopefully everything will settle down. Boring sounds really good! Thanks so much for all of your support and advice, it really helped a lot.
Penny
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Great news! I hope it doesPennyJ said:Negative bone scan (yippee!)
I just got back from the doctor's office and got the official word that the scan was negative! What a relief! I'm still having the upper spine pain and my MO thinks that the aromasin may have activated some inflammation in the arthritis in my spine. I've got some prednisone to take to try to decrease the inflammation and hopefully w/ that and having stopped the aromasin things will start to get better. She ordered Fareston to start in another week. It is apparently similar to Tamoxifen. So I am feeling encouraged and hopefully everything will settle down. Boring sounds really good! Thanks so much for all of your support and advice, it really helped a lot.
Penny
Great news! I hope it does get better for you!
Hugs, Jan
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Very good news!survivorbc09 said:Great news! I hope it does
Great news! I hope it does get better for you!
Hugs, Jan
Very good news!
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Feeling bettertaylor manny said:Very good news!
Very good news!
After being started on a short dose of Prednisone (steroid) for the back pain last Friday. Yesterday was my last day so we'll see how it goes from here. It's amazing how much less joint and muscle pain I have had off of the Arimedex. For the 1st time in months I can get smoothly out of a chair and walk without pain! I'd been feeling that way so long, that you kind of get used to it (I'm 49, felt like I was 89). So tomorrow I start on Fareston as an estrogen-inhibitor. Does anyone have any expiriece with this drug? I took Tamoxifen for 3mo when I was first diagnosed, but I was also doing chemo at the time, so I'm not sure what side effects were the Tamoxifen vs the chemo. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks! Penny
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Sending congrats on your goodPennyJ said:Feeling better
After being started on a short dose of Prednisone (steroid) for the back pain last Friday. Yesterday was my last day so we'll see how it goes from here. It's amazing how much less joint and muscle pain I have had off of the Arimedex. For the 1st time in months I can get smoothly out of a chair and walk without pain! I'd been feeling that way so long, that you kind of get used to it (I'm 49, felt like I was 89). So tomorrow I start on Fareston as an estrogen-inhibitor. Does anyone have any expiriece with this drug? I took Tamoxifen for 3mo when I was first diagnosed, but I was also doing chemo at the time, so I'm not sure what side effects were the Tamoxifen vs the chemo. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks! Penny
Sending congrats on your good news!
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HiPennyJ said:Feeling better
After being started on a short dose of Prednisone (steroid) for the back pain last Friday. Yesterday was my last day so we'll see how it goes from here. It's amazing how much less joint and muscle pain I have had off of the Arimedex. For the 1st time in months I can get smoothly out of a chair and walk without pain! I'd been feeling that way so long, that you kind of get used to it (I'm 49, felt like I was 89). So tomorrow I start on Fareston as an estrogen-inhibitor. Does anyone have any expiriece with this drug? I took Tamoxifen for 3mo when I was first diagnosed, but I was also doing chemo at the time, so I'm not sure what side effects were the Tamoxifen vs the chemo. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks! Penny
Hi Penny,
I am so happy for you!!! First a clean bone scan and now feeling better. I hope you can now get back to doing things you enjoy.
Great, great news!!
Ginny
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