Chlonidine

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1

Hi there,

I know from posting on other threads that some of you like myself have been prescribed Chlonidine for the ghastly flushes. I am on 1 three times a day and wondered if anyone else was on a stronger dose. It does seem sometimes to kick in I first started taking it 5 weeks ago a week before i went to Lanzarote but obviously it was too soon then for it to work as i sweated like i never sweated before.

Anyone also know about the whole dental thing with no lymph nodes. I had work on my tooth yesterday and had a new crown put in, he dug around in the gum a lot and today i am in agony with it. I phoned him earlier and he said come down this afternoon and get some antibiotic. I am terrified of infection as i contracted septicaemia after the mastectomy and have never been so ill in my life, had 4 days of four lots of IV antibiotic in hospital to kill the infection. Hubby and i are off to Corfu on the 12th and am terrified of being ill while away.

I sometimes think i am suffereing from paranoia (wow bad spelling) it seems to me that this year has been one thing after another, just as soon as i get over one thing something else comes along to bite me on the bum! I should really count my blessings as after reading about other people on this site i am so very fortunate.
Funny though when people outside this forum tell me how lucky i am (my non breast cancer friends) i feel amazed, how the hell can i be lucky when i have had BC am sporting one jaunty breast, and have swelling the size of Africa under my arm which pulls all my garments to one side! I soon tell them that lucky would not be having BC, having two perky breasts and not suffering the dreaded side effects of the Arimidex! I

Well that is my winge, think it is because of the tooth pain that i am miserable today, is it also normal after what we have been through to be so neurotic about every little ache and pain. Thank God for this site, my family are wonderful but sometimes i think they have just about had enough of my BC trauma and just want me to forget about it and get on with life.

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Hi Suzzanne, i am glad someone else feels like me when i read your comments i could have cried as i feel just the same. About the clonadine, i take 4 aday 2 in the morning and 2 at night and after a couple of months the blood boiling started to improve, however i am having treatment for gynie problems and the medication has stopped the clonadine working and the dreaded things are back with a vengance. I too have bad sidde effects with Arimidex last week i felt so bad i thought is it worth taking these when i feel so ill, which i dare not say to my family as they already look at me like im mad because im so tired and walk around like a zombie, like you i feel they think i should get on with it but i can’t and feel guilty about it crazy!

I think because we see all theses wonderful strong survivors of breast cancer its easy to forget they have bad days too, and yes we might be strange looking but we are normal and when things don’t go well time after time you do feel like screaming. I am trying acupunture next week to help me with depression etc, im scared to take anti-depressants after how the other medication has effected me, i have been told that the needles will release all the tension i think i will explode if that happens.

Hope things get abit better for you.

Linlin

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Hi linlin, thanks so much for that info, i am off to see the doctor tomorrow as i am almost out of the chlonodine and would like some more. Had a real bad sweat in tesco, everyone Else was all wrapped up in winter clothes and i was stripping off faster than a prostitute being waved a 50 pound note!

I shall see if he will let me have the same dosage as you. sorry that this drug is reacting with the other drugs you are on, I can imagine how you feel after having some respite from the bloody flushes! I actually went 2 hours yesterday evening without a flush, i really thought i had turned a corner till the bad sweat in Tesco, can’t face going in there again after dripping all over the checkout. People tend to recoil at your red sweaty face and palms!

I know from the package insert that you can have up to 6 a day, therefore 4 would not be over the top for me.

Had to go back to the dentist today with this blasted crown, cost me £490 and i have ended up in agony, he says the pain is normal after digging around in my gum for an hour yesterday but ‘with my history’ he gave me an antibiotic just in case! Hope to God it settles down and I can manage my holiday to Corfu, hubby and i had already cancelled one ‘holiday of a lifetime’ due to BC losing around £400 in extras that we had paid for as a treat to ourselves. I had got my youngest son off to New Zealand on a Working Holiday Visa, hubby and I said great after 34 years of child rearing now is the time for us, and yes you guessed it, two months later i was in hospital having a mastectomy!

I know what you mean about wondering if the side effects are worth it, I had a terrible day last week, sweating with a vengeance then feeling so sick after the chills that followed, hubby walked in on me in the kitchen, i did not have the strength to go upstairs to the bathroom, naked at the sink sponging myself down with cold water. I told him it was just not worth the problems they caused me to keep taking the Arimidex, he just collapsed in tears saying i must continue as life is not worth living without me, no pressure then!

I know in my heart of hearts that i would be terrified of stopping the pills but when you feel so weak an ill after the sweats you start wondering about the quality of your life, especially when you have to carry a small towel and change of underwear with you every time you go out. just in the middle of one now but could be because i have the heating on and the oven!

I have had acupuncture for a neck problem in the past it is very relaxing, i do hope you get on with it, let me know how you get on and if it stops the flushes, i would do anything to stop mine. My house has a fan in every room apart from the little room and even going to the toilet brings on a flush with me.

If i laugh i flush, if i cry i flush, if i clean the loo i flush, there is no stopping the bloody things, can you imagine what i was like in Lanzarote a month ago in the 85 degree temperature, I went with a friend who still can’t accept i have had breast cancer so i just tried to carry on as usual, I just dripped the whole holiday. This time we are hiring an air conditioned car so i can sit in some degree of comfort. My holidays are what i look forward to from one holiday to another so you can imagine my disappointment that even they are being spoiled by these dratted flushes and sweats.

My sister in law who was diagnosed two years ago is on Amiltriptylene (not sure how it is spelt) she says it is a wonderful drug and she feels great on it. It has given her a positivity which I both admire and envy. As she says who cares if it is an antidepressant if it works and she feels good! I have days when the world is so sad, every little things sets me off, poor hubby never knows what kind of mood i am going to be in, I can be either really happy or in the depths of distress. Fortunately for me the good days are better than the bad and i try to focus on the fact that although i am having a bad day tomorrow will most probably be a good one. I think trying to cope with these sweats and flushes and the side effects of the drug are what makes us depressed, keeps reminding us of what we have been through. After all before my diagnosis i never sweat ed, had flushes or felt so weepy, also my hand did not ache so much. If we could get these side effects under control we would be marvellous.

I have met two ladies recently on Tamoxifen who have had no side effects whatsoever and look at me like i am a lunatic when i tell them about me. They are managing their lives with hardly a problem and two years on are practically living the life they had before diagnosis, back at work with no problems. I can’t imagine greeting my customers in my shop with a sweaty face and body!

Lets live in hope that soon if we all make a wave about side effects someone will come up with a drug to counteract all these problems we have. In the meantime from one sweaty hot person to another i wish you well and success in all that you try, keep me posted on how you feel and are getting on.

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Hi Suzanne
I’m a clonidine fan as it’s working for me - same dose as Linlin. My flushes still happen, but they’re a lot less frequent and I rarely sweat at all. I still get really hot at night and do the dance with the covers from around 3.00 a.m. which is a pain, but I’m not dripping all day, nor do I have quite the chill factor that I had before. I couldn’t bear it when it was at its hieght - just as you describe your symptoms. It was completely debilitating and frankly quite revolting. Friends would reach to touch my chemo hair and come away soaked through. i couldn’t go to the pub even for a coke or there was a puddle on the chair back! I felt like I had flu and even had the whirlypits to go with it.
I think it’s worth a try to ask the GP to up your meds, but it also may well be worth looking at other options. i read in other threads that other women are trying megace and gabapentine. There is also some evidence that some anti depressants can be effective. I think you need to make as much noise about your problem as possible and thus get some resolution - stopping the hormone treatment has to be the last resort.
I do hope things get better - very very soon
Sarah
XXX

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hi Sarah,
Thanks for that, I have made an appointment with the nicest most sypmathetic doctor in the practice for this afternoon! I had to wait 2 weeks for him but he is just so lovely that i feel really comfortable around him. I shall ask him about all the options available to me, the doctor who put me on the chlonidine did so because it was the only one he knew of, he is the senior partner at the practice and has been for about 30 years.

These flushes are funny things (not funny ha ha) sometimes it is a case of my face burning, this i can cope with, just look overheated and quite tanned but most times my head sweats down to my chest, arms, back, bottom, legs and even my feet, i can literally wring out my knickers (sorry if that is graphic) it is the sweats that leave me with the nausea, i do have clyclazine for nausea but am on so many tablets already i feel quite toxic! The chlonidine has definately taken the edge of the flushes,sometimes i can go for 1 1/2 hours now without flushing and sweating, for someone who had 3 an hour and felt that quality of life was impaired because they were too embarrassed to go out this is something of an achievment! Just wish it could happen all the time but every 6 hours would be heaven! I also find if i have a good night i cope better with them, if i have an off day they seem to come every 15mins and i finish one then start another, so it was on Monday, i was so miserable all day, i had an upset stomach and that really started things going wrong.

I slept better last night only woke up when this blasted crown started aching, went to the loo and tried to settle down to sleep again, must have dozed off as i was being elected for congress in America! Weird what we dream on these meds!

I am going to mention to my young lovely doctor today that someone should research the side effects of these wonderful drugs and try and find something that helps us to cope with them. Surely if they can come up with these great drugs in the first place which can keep the cancer at bay they can also find something for its side effects.

No i am not stopping the hormone treatment, that is just when i feel so rough and wet and disgusting. Like i said before i try to remember that if i do have a bad day the next couple after it are usually really good. I will speak to my doctor today about upping the medication and other treatment options if that does not work. I refuse in this day and age to put up with these horrid symptoms when there are loads of other people out there not experiencing them at all. Enough is enough and like you say i am going to make a lot of noise about this and get some semblance of normality back into my life again.

Thanks Sarah and linlin for your help and support it is so much apprecaited.
Suzy xx

I tend to do whatever i need to when one flush finishes as i have a small window before the next one

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hi everyone,

just got back from the doctors and he says i was on clonidine 25microgram which is a very lose dose so i can up the dose. just got back from the pharmacy and see i have still been given the same dosage so will phone surgery when finished and see what to do. Apparently clonidine goes up to 100 microgram tablets. Feel a lot happier now as he says i can take quite a lot and even up the dose on holiday. I wonder what dosage everyone else is on. I am just hopeful now that perhaps i can see a light at the end of the tunnel…

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Great news Suzzanne,
im really pleased for you its something small that will make a huge difference to you and hopefully make you feel normal again. The good thing is that your doctor is giving you plenty of leaway with dosage so im sure you will be a new woman in no time at all. Some one has told me that there is a pillow called a chillow! which is supposed to be very good i don’t know if you have heard of it, i may give it a try but the cold chills after the sweats put me off as they can be as bad as the sweats. I feel abit of a whimp at the moment as i was in hospital last week for a couple of days and the lady opposite me had had a mastectomy, i could not believe how well she seemed mentally and physically. I kept thinking why was i such a wreck and even now get angry at myself because i still haven’t come to terms with it (but do you ever!), it is hard to be what everybody wants you to be when alot of the time you feel like screaming why me, except you don’t have the energy. Anyway you can look forward to your holiday now with your hubby it could be Mills & Boon all over again. Keep your heart up.

Regards Linlin

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Thanks linlin

I fully intend to literally ‘chill out’, Hubby really needs this holiday, the whole thing from diagnosis to mastectomy and septicemia has really dragged him down. He can’t handle anything to do with BC or any news item or magazine story, he just can’t accept any of it so he really does need to get away from the house, town, hospital and everything that is a constant reminder to him.

I am still getting very hot, had a sweat yesterday in Wallis but got the old towel out and dried off but did not need to change clothing thank God. I know it takes a bit of time for the tablets to start working says in the packet insert 2 to 4 weeks so am not expecting miracles just yet. To be able to go into the town and feel a bit more confident about it is something.

Heard from my sister in law who has been such a wonderful support to me, having herself had BC two years ago, her wonderful husband had mouth cancer 16 years ago and it came back beginning of this year, he has only two teeth left and a plate holding the roof of his mouth up and still can’t eat, so wonderfully cheerful though, is back to work mornings and has even started singing in the church choir. When i was diagnosed he went to his church’s healing service and went up and asked for healing for ME, not himself, i was just so touched. Anyway he has a lump on his neck which he is having removed, nobody is saying anything negative but it just upsets me and of course that brings on a flush, I am so worried about him but when i speak to my sister in law i keep positive with her. Won’t find out anything before i go away but just wanted to say his courage and determination are a real inspiration to me. When i have been moaning about this bloody crown, i bet he wishes he had the same petty trivial little thing to moan about and yet he never does.

See i am also a wreck and like you i have not come to terms with any of this yet, to the outside world i must seem so cheerful but when Hubby is away working his 12 hour day i have plenty of time on my own to think and brood and feel sorry for myself and believe me you have not got the monopoly in feeling like you do. I would give anything to have that old life back which i never appreciated when i had it. Oh linlin I know exactly how you feel, the frustration, the fear, the fear also that you will never be the same as before and like me you will mourn for the old carefree you, the annoyance with yourself that other people seem to cope better than you. The chills i know well they are what make me sick, so i pop an anti sickness pill and then next thing i am fast asleep on the couch, sleeping when i could be living my life.

I do worry (see it is all in my head) that sometimes i have what i call my off days, I do not have pain or any physical symptoms but i just don’t feel good, can’t leave the house or do anything much apart from having a shower and then just sitting down not concentrating or doing anything, i mentioned this to my sister in law and she said she had days like this too when she was in the first year. It is amazing though that i can feel off for about 8 hours and then all of a sudden it is gone and i feel alert and great once more, it is these off days though that i sweat and flush the most and they get me down and hysterical almost with frustration.

I also am so pissed off with people telling me how lucky i am to be alive, they are also alive but have not been through anything we girls have, when they ask me how i am i tell them that once the sweats and flushes have gone and my energy increases they tell me it is a small part to put up with to be alive! I know that! But they are alive without BC, sweats, flushes and lack of energy!

Oh well i must stop moaning, my pet hobby! The first time i moaned my husband cried, he said he had missed it so much and it was like having a bit of the old me back!!!

You give yourself time linlin (I know it really pisses me off when people go on about time) this is all still new to us and remember cousin Jean who was diagnosed 9 years ago who never even thinks about BC now apart from when she is called for her 3 yearly mammo. Don’t get cross with yourself but come online to me and we can come to terms with things together.

Much love to you
Suzy

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Hi Suzanne and Linlin
I’m pleased you got something done about your meds, Suzanne. I hope this works for you - you’re suffering so badly. As you say, it will take weeks unfortunately for you to know if it’s working. I realise that i should also have told you that I’ve cut out caffeine completely - one cup of coffee is enough to tip me right back to where I was. it was a fortnight of no caffeine and the clonidine before I got any benefit. Apparently nicotine and alcohol have the same effects. I’ve managed the nicotine bit, but I need the occasional gin and who cares about the flushes then!
I too have had lots of problems adjusting to life, just like you. if you read back through the discussion forums you’ll see countless threads talking about feeling low, confused, scared, angry, etc. I’m at the end of the treatment journey and have found it really difficult emotionally - I’ll spare you the detail here as it’s all well documented in other threads, but I’m with you 100%. It’s really important to find an outlet for your feelings and to be able to tell others around you how you feel,. When you post on this site lots of people will read what you’ve said and understand it completely - this community knows all about the emotions that we feel about our BC, treatments, family and friends,etc.
Thanks Suzanne for the example of your cousin who managed to forget about BC eventually - i can’t wait for the day it happens for me.
Sarah
XXX

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Hi Sarah

Thanks for your reply, i actually don’t drink or smoke, really boring, never like the taste of booze, wine always tastes like something you should throw over your chips so alcohol does not worry me, i gave up the fags 3 years ago and never smoke in the UK but do enjoy the odd fag on holiday! Perhaps that is why i suffered so much in Lanzarote. I only drink decaff tea and coffee but caffeine is in so many things, hard to give it up altogether. Just told hubby he will have to really cut down on the fags in Corfu so I don’t feel so bad about the no fags on holiday, perhaps a couple a day…! Yes one day we will be like my cousin Jean, poor women had a grade 3 aggresive cancer that had also spread to her lymph nodes, she had chemmo and rads all those years ago. I wish you all could see her now, she is fantastic, you would never know she had ever been so ill. I was amazed when she told me she never thinks about BC now and only has check ups every three years the same as anyone who had not had a diagnosis. I think we need to know more about people like Jean who have really managed to kick the disease into touch even when the powerful drugs we have today were not so commonly prescribed. She took great pains to tell me also that she had had no recurrance of the disease that had taken her own mother 25years previously. She refused to dwell on things and managed to continue working throughout treatment, unlike me who is such a wimp, she truely believed that she would be ok and was totally positive through everything. How she did it i do not know but i do take my hat off to her and everyone else who goes through so much and complains so little.

Love to you all
Suzy

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Hi Suzy

I am getting awful hot flushes too but not as bad as yours. Just wanted to say I sympathise. My consultant recommended an anti depressant beginning with “v”. Can’t remember name but doctor said they weren’t allowed to prescribe it anymore. I took Megace for 9 days and have never felt so ill in my life so I am currnetly having to just “put up with it”. I know what you mean about people not understanding. I decline walks with my hubbie because I know I will be wringing in sweat within 10 mins, like you down to my underwear, and also I feel really ill when it happens. I told my sister in law I was going to see Consultant about it (she’s a nurse). She shrugged her shoulders and said " Can’t you just take a herbal pill or something". I told her that I couldn’t and why and she said " Oh well. that’s what happens when you are getting palliative care". Went home and cried my eyes out. Always thought palliative care was for terminal cancer. She was so uncaring and thoughtless. Also, when I told consultant I was miserable on Tamoxifen, he said " you musn’t forget you have a life threatening illness!"

Anyway, I am rambling. Just hope it lessens in time as I can’t imagine feeling like this for another 4 years

Love
Debbie

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Hi Debbie

This is my last posting for a week off to Corfu with hubby tomorrow, the weather forecast is rain and temps of about 67, bliss, Lanzaraote in September with temperatures of 85 totally finished me off i have never felt so ill.

I know what you mean about feeling so ill after a sweat, i feel so sick and fluey after one, so glad (not for you) that i have found someone else who suffers the illness after a sweat like i do, was beginning to worry as nobody else had mentioned that. So i am not alone, sometimes i never leave the house as i just feel too ill to do so and other days i feel on top of the world almost and could do anything. Then i overdo it and suffer the next day with sweats about every 20mins, boy it is hell and like you another 5 years of it does nothing to instill that sense of happiness we are meant to feel at being still around!

I am up to 6 clonidine a day and when i hear about other ladies on this site on 16 a day feel i might myself up my dose on holiday to 9 quite safely.

Forgot to pack my ‘sweat towel’ for holiday so must sign off and get it in my hand luggage.

Back a week tomorrow
Suzy

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Have a lovely holiday Suzy.

Re your comments, I often feel like I am coming down with something and am always too hot or too cold whether I am in the throws of a sweat or not? How can you be hot and freezing cold at the same time?? I have recently found that being stressed, tired, overdoing things, drinking hot drinks and alcohol all make things worse. Ironically, I have just started a period after an 8 week gap and feel great now! What is going on with my body?? Arrrggghh.

Anyway, I might have missed you but have fun

love
Debbie

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Suzanne - as I write you are probably arriving in Corfu. I’m thinking of you settling into your hotel, getting in the pool for the first swim and going out tonight for mezes and ouzo - you lucky, lucky thing! When I said about caffeine, i really didn’t mean to diminish what you have been experiencing. I had similar problems, but only for about a month till i got the solution which works for me. But that month was one of the worst of my life and I can’t imagine how it would be to not be able to find something to make it better. I still have regular hot flushes and I also have the fluey thing that you describe, but the sweating has stopped and the frequency has reduced, and that’s what makes it bearable now. I wish for you that you could find something to help you too.
Debbie - I read somewhere, but can’t unfortunately remember where it was - concerns expressed by oncologists that they wish they could find a solution for us because some women have such severe symptoms that they do stop taking Tamoxifen - because they can’t bear it, not because they’re being flippant or stupid. I thought it was so good to hear it from the perspective of practitioners whohave a genuine concern and understanding of how bad it is for the women who are afflicted. If I can find it, I’ll come back and give you the link so you can wave it in front of your (unbelievably unhelpful) sister-in-law and consultant. They need to buck their ideas up - this is a real and significant problem which is ruining lives. And yes, i have that hot/cold thing - it’s a nuisance and it is related to all those triggers you list, but often i only remember that when I’ve done the thing already and am in full boil / chill! Glad to hear you’re feeling good - long may it last!
Sarah
XXX

15

Thanks Sarah. You have made me feel so much better. I am one year post dx. Lucky enough not to need chemo but had a 2cm grade 2 cancer with no lymph involvement. Had WLE, 15 rads and 4 e boosters and now Tamoxifen. I am trying to stay positive but am tired of feeling guilty when I mention bc or any part of my treatment. The looks say it all. " oh god, here she goes again". Am sick of people telling me I no longer have bc when my consultant still refers to me as having it. This really confuses me. When I have finished my 5 years of Tamoxifen, will I finally be able to say “had breast cancer” and what is remission? Is this for people having chemo?

Love to everyone
Debbie

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hi i am on 2 tablets 3 times a day and started them yesterday. i have googled clonidine and read the side effects.
so far it has caused me to be very tired , was in bed by 10 pm and this morning after taking dose had to close my eyes again for an hour or so. also very dry mouth.
the tablets are 25mcg.
just hope the body gets acustomed and settles down, can’t be sleeping all day…

i had mastectomy in nov 2005, i am now back at work an on the whole am getting on with life, just occasionally it will rear it’s ugly head especially when i hear of people i have met on this and another site if they have had secondries or perhaps lost the fight.
at the mo the doc is treating my hot flushes as he feels they are the cause of me feeling tired and brain dead ,lol, if that doesn’t work he will look at other avenues of help ie. effexor ( which is an anti depressant that also helps with hot flushes)

debbie, i was told by my surgeon that after the op i had clear margins and therefore was clear of cancer.
others will say that you wait to be clear for 5 years which is the government guide lines for their facts and figures to say that if you have not had it for 5 years you are deemed clear.
sharon

17

Thanks Sharon

I am feeling a lot more positive now

Love
Debbie

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Suzy, when you read this im sure you will fell like a new woman! Hope you and your hubby had a great time sometimes we do forget that everyone around us suffers too. To all you other lovely ladies it is such a relief when you see that your not the only one suffering i have just been prescribed anti-depressants as so many things have happened in my life it would make a best seller, add that to the combination of side effects and i was about to go over the edge. At first i felt guilty but if it gets my head around things it will be ok, i must seem worrying to my husband as he has always hated the idea of any anti-depressants making you addicted but even he said it may help. I think there should be a little village just for women like us who can go there and get a feel good fix as the “normal world” seems so alien and drains positive energy from me. Its true it is so irritating when people say you’re lucky but when you don’t feel like the person you were its so frustrating im hoping one day it will all fall into place and i will feel good about myself. Its great to read your comments love to you all.
Linlin

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Hi everyone, got back from Corfu early hours of Saturday morning, we were due back Friday night at about 9.30pm but you have guessed it, we got to the airport at 5.50pm to be told the plane was not leaving till 0.30am, 7 hours in tiny Corfu airport was no joke. I had upped my Clonidine to 9 a day to help with the holiday but had run out early in the morning so had none to see me through.

I had a wonderful time, Nigel true to his word hired a lovely air conditioned car and with that on and the temperature around 68 to 70 the whole week, the sweats were greatly reduced, I bought a small hand towel with the Corfu island on it much to nigel’s amusement, he just wiped me down the few times a day i drip sweated, I still had the flushes where my head, ears and body felt hot but away from England and all the normalities of life they just did not seem so noticeable, yes now i am back the sweats are too but i am trying to work around them now. Nigel was so sympathetic too that also helped, he told me to take each day at my pace and the moment i felt tired we found a cafe and had a sit down and rest.

The weather as i said was gorgeous, we explored every part of this beautiful island and managed to go where the tourist can’t, we found dirt tracks that led to secluded beaches, we drove through olive plantations (not sure we were meant to) and did not leave one part of the island undiscovered. In the evening our hotel arranged fantastic entertainment so I just sat and chilled and enjoyed all that was on offer, i can really recommend Corfu, it is so beautiful i felt quite spiritual sitting in the mild sun looking out over beautiful mountains and coves.

I did get tired quickly which i think was due to upping the Clonidine, by 4.30 i was usually asleep in the car for the journey back to the hotel, i also took a cyclazine one night and completely missed the show i was so fast asleep, the poor entertainer must have thought me so rude, especially as we sat in the front row!

Linlin there in nothing wrong in taking anti-depressants or anything that makes our lives a little easier, when i was first starting the sweats soon after i started the arimidex i would have taken anything to stop them, i just felt that i coul not go out and do all the things i used to and that my life was over as i had once known it. My sister in law who i have posted about here before takes a really strong one Amilytripalene (bad spelling) she was always anti drugs but that all changed when BC came along, take anything that helps, if things get really bad for me i shall explore all avenues, i do not want holidays again like Lanzarote where i dripped so much it spoilt the whole holiday, especially as i cant control the weather!

I also worry that although i had a mastectomy and removal of all lymph nodes i was told i would not need chemmo or rads as it had not spread to my lymph nodes, the Arimidex would be enough. I am so thankful that i did not have either of these but i did have two different cancers in the same breast, my sister in law reassures me that the ladies in her ward who had mastectomys did not have chemmo or rads either but when i see the posting on here of ladies who had no lymph involvement but still had chemmo or rads i do start to worry. I was told at diagnosis i had a 50% chance of chemmo but told a week after surgery all i needed was the Arimidex. After my dreadful treatment at the hosptial and by the Breast Unit i do not have much confidence in them at all. I know, i should just count myself lucky and stop winging!

I still have my swelling under my arm from the first surgery and the plane has made it so much worse, something to do with the air pressure my husband thinks. It is pulling all my clothes to one side and wearing my protheses is luncomfortable with it, God I can moan for Arica, England and Asia!

Anyway, love to you all and if i find a cure for these sweats anytime soon i will pass it on.

Suzy

20

Hi - searching for a cure to the sweats I came accross ‘magna pulse’ a magnet that sticks in your pants near your tummy button. meant to help with symptoms of menopause, anyway put it on and went to M and S and wearing tights and a flimsy dress realised that as I was paying I had got stuck to the conveyor belt (yes metal !) . Luckily I was on my own (but my partner wishes he was there to witness it!). Anyway I am that desperate to get rid of the flushes - which are better - is it the magna pulse the elderflower drink, the deep breathing, the sage tablets, the homeopathic tablets, or time and my body getting used to it…who knows!