[Wellness] RE: Seeking input

["Mott Sarah E" <mott.se@mellon.com>]

Hi Lana -
So sorry to hear of your diagnosis, hope you're doing as well as can be
expected. It is scary to hear these tales about docs putting their pats
on HRT with little or no cause...

I'm not sure there's much difference between Femara and Arimidex.
Here's a comparison discussion that leans to Femara a little bit.

http://www.advancesinoncology.com/printer_friendly.asp?b=aio&f=aio_breas
tcancer&c=breast_aiasco2

More info here from Dr. Susan Love
http://www.susanlovemd.org/faq/aromatase-inhibitors/aromatase-hormone-su
rgery.html

....either way my guess is Tamoxifen won't be around much longer. Hooray
for that!!

My suggestion would be to try each for a couple of months, with a month
off in between, and see which one you do better with. Assuming your doc
has no good reason to pick one vs. the other. They both seem to block
synthesis of estrogen from fat/muscle/adrenal tissue, and thus would
work best on post-menopausal women, who are no longer getting much
estrogen from their ovaries.

GOOD LUCK!

Sarah





-----Original Message-----
From: LRBogan@aol.com [mailto:LRBogan@aol.com] 
Sent: Friday, April 23, 2004 7:09 PM
To: Mott Sarah E
Subject: Seeking input


Wow ladies, your stories are magnificent. I was diagnosed with stage
three breast cancer in April of 2001 (HRT without a doubt my nemesis).
Stupid ass me. I didn't have one symptom, not one, and was placed on
HRT. Why? Because I thought that's just what WE women were supposed to
do. If my doctors (both females) had simply asked me what symptoms I was
having, I would have said "None." No night sweats, no hot flashes, no
mood swings. Nothing! I would think then, that I never would have taken
hormone replacement. I would have elected to take another route for a
dried up vagina and osteoporosis. Oh! I'm not angry. 

In July I will be 59 years old. After my chemo, my radiation, my
surgeries, then more chemo, I was placed on Tamoxifen. That would have
been December of 2001. In May of 2002 my brain started to freak. My mind
was Okay, but my brain wasn't, which affected my mind. I experienced
horrible memory loss. I could see myself behaving as though I had some
type of mood disorder; flight of ideas, incoherence, lose my place in
the middle of a sentence. I could not retrieve any information. Nothing
was even on the "tip of my tongue." I found myself getting lost in my
car. One night after work, and by the way I am a licensed
psychotherapist, I drove around downtown Nashville (the loop it's
called) three times and could not remember how to get home.

I found out that my family, one husband, four sisters, a mother, and
three grown children all thought that I was on amphetamines. And they
didn't know how to approach me. Of course I was faking "normal" because
I could not understand what was going on. Was I a mental case because of
unconscious fear? I thought, possibly. 

Then one day I just knew it had to be the Tamoxifen. I was declining so
rapidly. I was literally losing my mind. I took myself off of Tamoxifen,
called my doctor the next day and told him. I requested Femara, a drug
my dear friend was on, as she was diagnosed with breast cancer one year
after me. He put me on Arimidex which is supposed to be the same thing,
at least I hope it is. 

Within ten days all my cognitive functioning was normal. My mind came
back. My broken brain was fixed. Swollen fingers, can't wear my rings,
aching joints, slight headaches, nothing else. I am so fascinated with
your stories about Femara. Might you know whether Arimidex is comparable
to Femara?

I apologize for this lengthy post. Sorry if I taxed you.

Much hope and love,
Lana Bogan 
  
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