Hi due to start Abemaciclib (alongside tamoxifen) next week and absolutely dreading side effects are freaking me out . Any positive stories out there as to how you may be doing on it - just finished chemo in Nov hair is just making a fair reappearance, how much has it affected your hair? As well as the Bowels yikes x
Cheer me up with some positives 
Im on month 5 of abemaciclib which i had a bad reaction to the 150mg dose so it was lowered to 100mg from month 2 which has been great for me no bowel problems or any other major side effects. I do find i get a headache if i dont drink enough so now constantly have a water bottle with me . I haven’t lost any hair but have noticed that the growth has slowed down but i can live with that . Hope you get on well with the treatment and dont be afraid to ask for the dose to be lowered if you have problems x
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Hi,
I was on this treatment with Fulvestrant injections once a month.
The list of side effects are horrendous, enough to scare you half to death.
I was on this treatment for 4.5 years before it decided or my body decided it was no longer doing its job.
I decided that I was not going to think about all the horrible things I would have to put up with whilst taking this medication and decided, that I would commence treatment and I was not going to be getting these side effects as I wanted to continue to work full time and this was not going to stop this happening.
I did have occasional nausea and diarrhoea but not often. I was given sickness tablets and diarrhoea tablets by the nurses, with the instruction that if I only felt the slightest nauseous to take a tablet immediately, not to wait and see if it got worse. It was good advice, as doing this, I did not follow on being sick etc. on the odd times I did not take the tablet straightaway when stomach started I did end up vomiting. The same with the diarrhoea, if you had loose bowels take the diarrhoea tablet immediately and that would invariably settle that as well it seems you have to take the tablets immediately you started to feel nauseous etc. if left it would then become a big issue.
I had a sore mouth with ulcers but again they supplied mouthwash, which deadened the pain considerably making mouth numb, but being very quick in healing the ulcers as well. None of these side effects were debilitating, just the odd inconvenience.
The worst effect I had and had it when I was having my chemo, was extremely dry hands, where I could literally peel the skin off. Moisturiser needs to have urea in it, and I was told when having my chemo to get udderly cream with high urea content off Amazon as this was very good for your hands. What I found was that it would seem to help, but then it would flair up again, so it was as if the body got use to the product so would need to use other cream for a while then go back to it. The nails were very poor, ridged and split very easy, down into the live splitting down the ridges.
I have extremely fine hair and I did have thinning whilst on the treatment, which was noticeable, but if you have thick hair you probably would not notice it.
These were the only issues I had on the treatment, so continued to work throughout.
I do try to keep a positive attitude and not think about what side effects I could get and take what comes, and then deal with it then. I have been lucky throughout with all the treatment, I have had little side effects.
I never reduced my dose throughout, but they will do so if you can’t cope with any side effects.
I hope you do not get many side effects, stay positive, but do take the medication they give you for it, as I said above and it worked.
All the best with your ongoing treatment, and hope this helps you somewhat, that you can be on this treatment without having all the horrendous side effects they list.
Afternoon. I’m
Same as you - straying Abem. Early Feb. Really dreading the side effects as tummy/viral issues are so debilitating but I keep telling myself whatever I get will be improving my chances etc. so no time else posted on here (to my post) that they did not get too many bad side effects so I am
Hoping the same - seems so frustrating, just when you start to recover from chemo and RT, off you go again. Let’s both keep our fingers crossed we are nut too bad. Good luck to you. Keep us posted - I’ll do same. Onwards and upwards 
PS should have added / I had tamoxifen for 5 years for my first BC(I have the genetic gene) and hardly had any side effects at all from that so hope you are same 
Hi, I’m on my 4th cycle of Abemaciclib and so far it’s not too bad. For me the diarrhoea has settled down, I do have a sensitive gut and some abdominal discomfort at times. This drug shows promising results in that the 5 year results show a reduction in recurrence by 7%. I am not thinking too far ahead and just taking it a day at a time.
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Thankyou so much for sharing your story. I think like any of our treatments what they tell you about side effects and what we read is scary . Will see how I get on started my tamoxifen a week ago and just started abemaciclib yesterday. So will see how I ago.
All the best x
Thankyou for sharing a glad you are doing ok on it . Another step that we all have to take in our stride. The side effects are enough to scare you senseless. But the positive results from it are worth giving it a go . Started my abemaciclib yesterday so fingers crossed .
All the best x
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I’m started taking Abemaciclib 10th of January (150mg) but within a few days started feeling completely shattered. By day 5 I couldn’t even stand up long enough to take a shower. Was told to stop taking it straight away and after about a week, I started to feel like myself again. Yesterday, I was started back on it, but at a lower dose (100mg). 2 tablets in and feeling exhausted again. So fed up and struggling to do a normal days work. Has anyone else had thus problem? Do I keep persevering or try an even lower dose?!
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