I had 8 rounds of chemo last june followed by a smx & 15 rounds of radiation & still feel absolutely horrendous. I have gone from being a fit 38 (at time of diagnosis) year old to feeling about 80 every day. I ache in my bones (hands and feet in particular) - i wheeze, my heart bangs walking up the stairs. I seem to have lymphedema & cannot stay awake post 9pm most nights.
I am a 34 e so my right boob hurts without an underwire. I feel my face is always swollen. 2 of my teeth have started to crumble. I am covered in cellulite. Everything is dry. Is this the menopause? Is this normal?
I have not accepted ai’s due to the fear of making this worse & my team don’t really offer much.
Your description of yourself now, sounds very similar to me as well. I tried the AI’s for just a few months but my mental health took a very scary nose dive so I had to stop them.
It very much does sound like menopause. My periods came back so I’m back to being perimenopause but the symptoms are exactly the same for me. I tried all sorts of things non hormonal to try and improve my mental health again but without any success at all.
In the end I asked if I could try HRT to see if it helped as I wasn’t living anymore but only existing. Finally they agreed with the understanding that if it didn’t help I would stop it again. I know it’s controversial and many don’t agree with it but I couldn’t carry on only existing. I didn’t want quantity with absolutely no quality to it.
I tell you this because, yes it helped my mental health massively and it feels pretty much back to my normal, but also my skin and hair were very dry and that has got so much better too. I have just started testosterone as well and waiting to see if that helps the fatigue as well as the memory loss
This is not me saying you must take HRT, only you can decide what is right for you. I just wanted to give you a perspective many shut down without even thinking/researching thoroughly about first due to the vast amount of misinformation around.
I hope you can find something that helps you to not feel so helpless and hopefully get at least a bit of your old self back again soon though.
I had exactly the same treatment as you, all be it 10yrs later at 48. I am now 3yrs on from treatment, so I can hopefully give you some light with the treatment journey. I was perimenopause at the time, so initially had tamox as pre treatment but then changed to Letrozole post, this caused much bone pain. So changed to Anastrazole which has had far less effects. So try & see what’s best for you, even if it means changing it.
I found I had the puffy-ness for 18mths post chemo, then noticed this changed & my face was returning to my normal. Also I can remember during this time feeling I could start walking & moving better as my body was ‘healing’. Previous to this I felt I couldn’t even take long strides walking up the street. As I was always a walker, regularly doing mountain walks with family, it upset me missing out. I then did Coppafeel charity 13k walk with my best mate 2yrs post treatment.
There are things you can have ‘locally to help as you need quality of life. Local oestrogen such as Blissel which is very low dose can be a game changer. I wish I did this earlier, but as the other lady has mentioned, you fear using anything initially
I hope you find some options to help. You will heal, taking baby steps, celebrate the little wins, try not to be hard on yourself. You can do this. Best wishes
Hi , there’s a lot of discussion about the ai’s. After 8 rounds of chemo, surgery and 15 sessions of radiotherapy, we just want it all to go away. I returned to the gym for group exercise classes, taking it really easy at first then building up to doing about 4 a week. Then after 18 months of that I sought out a wonderful personal trainer for strength training. Even on exemestane I feel strong, seriously strong. Be gentle on yourself as you come through those rough times. Take time to find your strength again. I can’t recommend taking a PT highly enough. I wish you well.
