In April, when I was diagnosed with breast cancer, my medical oncologist laid out his preferred plan of treatment after I’d had surgery and radiation. Because I’d been diagnosed with osteopenia (later changed to osteoporosis by my endocrinologist), aromatase inhibitors were off the table. They weaken bones and mine are already compromised. So instead, he told me I would be taking tamoxifen, 20 mg a day for probably five years, maybe more.
I'm not at all excited about taking tamoxifen. It's got some well-known common side effects that would greatly interfere with activities I enjoy. I'm not sure how much I'm willing to tolerate there, to be honest, especially since tamoxifen reduces the risk of cancer recurring by less than 10% for me. Diet and exercise give me far more bang for the buck with a 40% reduction in risk. Still, I'm not as low risk as I would have hoped, and one of the pathology reports indicated I had some lymphovascular invasion. That isn't necessarily a sign that this cancer will return or metastasize some place else but it's something to keep in mind.
So I’ve wrestled with whether I’m up for going on this drug. And as I told my MO, I had already signed up for a 10K race—the Plaza 10K which was two weeks ago—and I didn’t want to go on anything until after that race.
He agreed to that delay, which of course I’ve scope creeped by adding in two more 10K races, which were all part of the Heartland 30K Challenge (you can read about the Challenge here and I'll write more about those races later this week). And in the meantime, I ended up going on Prolia a week ago last Friday. Again, I would have preferred to start that drug after these three races were over, but my hip hurts all the time where I broke it and I’m highly, highly motivated to save my bones from something I clearly have.
In the last 10 days, I’ve unfortunately experienced some side effects from Prolia. That’s a little discouraging to be honest. Joint pain where I’ve never had any joint pain, muscle pain too, dry mouth—nothing major but still annoying. But at least I know what the Prolia feels like on its own.
And now tomorrow I guess I’ll find out what the tamoxifen feels like. I’m doing the slowest ramp up in the world—I’m starting with 5 mg a day and I’ll see how that feels. If I’m lucky and don’t have any side effects, I’ll go to 10 mg. But slow and steady is my motto on this part of my cancer treatment.
I'm not at all excited about taking tamoxifen. It's got some well-known common side effects that would greatly interfere with activities I enjoy. I'm not sure how much I'm willing to tolerate there, to be honest, especially since tamoxifen reduces the risk of cancer recurring by less than 10% for me. Diet and exercise give me far more bang for the buck with a 40% reduction in risk. Still, I'm not as low risk as I would have hoped, and one of the pathology reports indicated I had some lymphovascular invasion. That isn't necessarily a sign that this cancer will return or metastasize some place else but it's something to keep in mind.
So I’ve wrestled with whether I’m up for going on this drug. And as I told my MO, I had already signed up for a 10K race—the Plaza 10K which was two weeks ago—and I didn’t want to go on anything until after that race.
He agreed to that delay, which of course I’ve scope creeped by adding in two more 10K races, which were all part of the Heartland 30K Challenge (you can read about the Challenge here and I'll write more about those races later this week). And in the meantime, I ended up going on Prolia a week ago last Friday. Again, I would have preferred to start that drug after these three races were over, but my hip hurts all the time where I broke it and I’m highly, highly motivated to save my bones from something I clearly have.
In the last 10 days, I’ve unfortunately experienced some side effects from Prolia. That’s a little discouraging to be honest. Joint pain where I’ve never had any joint pain, muscle pain too, dry mouth—nothing major but still annoying. But at least I know what the Prolia feels like on its own.
And now tomorrow I guess I’ll find out what the tamoxifen feels like. I’m doing the slowest ramp up in the world—I’m starting with 5 mg a day and I’ll see how that feels. If I’m lucky and don’t have any side effects, I’ll go to 10 mg. But slow and steady is my motto on this part of my cancer treatment.
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| Bought a fancy pants pill splitter just for this drug. |
2 comments:
How are you feeling? Just curious, are you pre or post-menopausal? I'm post and I'm thinking--tell me if I am wrong--that the Tamoxifen wouldn't probably change much about my running. It all sucks and I hope that you're able to keep doing your thing. Fingers crossed.
Right now I feel nauseous. I'm post-menopausal so normally I'd be on aromatase inhibitors but because they weaken bones and I've got osteoporosis, I'm on tamoxifen.
I'm primarily concerned about bone & joint pain, which are both side effects of tamoxifen. And I'm not at all excited about the possibility of deep vein thrombosis or liver issues.
All the options just stink.
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