Hello,
This is my first visit to the site. It’s been pretty helpful and informative.
After taking Tamoxifen for 18 months, I was changed to Arimadex and have been taking it for 5 months. Throughout this time, I suffered continual hot flushes with heavy sweating. My GP prescribed Clonidine, which has magically reduced the sweating and flushes. Now I am getting occasional blurred vision and flashing lights. GP and Optician checked my eyes - possbily down to my age (49)… otherwise no cause for concern. Anyone had probs like this?
Hi i wonder where this posting is, i have been suffering from what i think is floaters and wondered if anyone else has them, like little black or white spots in front of my vision. Wonder if the Arimidex or Clonidine is responsible, they dont affect my vision but are a nuisance more than anything but are not there all the time.
Suzzane - I was advised to stop clonidine when I got bc - I had had a hysterectomy some yeara before being dx with bc. You might ask your Onc about taking this drug.
Liz.
Hi AnnyK
I suffered blurred vision while on Tamoxifen. It affected me after I had been on it about 16 months. Then I noticed my vision was getting more blurry. I at first put it down to age (55) I did mention it to the onc back in October, as it is a side effect of Tamoxifen. He put me on Aromasin. After I’d been on it a fortnight I noticed my vision improving. Now its back to normal. I am off Aromasin now, due to the unpleasant side affects that I was suffering. I have never taken clonidine, but from the ladies that have mentioned it on this site, none of them have mentioned blurred vision. But its worth mentioning to your Doc or optician again. You can’t be to careful with your eyes!
Like Cynthia says, you can’t be too careful with your eyes, I would get them checked again if I was you. I had flashing lights and floaters and was reassured by my optician that my eyes were healthy, but have been diagnosed with secondaries in one eye. It is rare but best to be on the safe side.
There is an ongoing discussion about Eye Mets on the Breast Cancer Secondaries category.
I have been a migraine sufferer for years, I have what they call headache clusters with aura [flashing lights], which briefly means when I get them, it happens about 5-6 times a week, but the clusters can be anything from 1-6 months apart. About 70% of the time I get warning symptoms, called an aura, before the actual headache begins. An aura is a vision disturbance, that serves as a warning sign that a bad headache is coming, so that gives me chance to take my migraine tablet called Naramig and defer the headache. If I don’t have a warning, the onset of a headache usually happens during the night.
Last week for the first time since starting Arimidex beginning of Sept 2007, I had cluster headaches. Previously when having them and taking Naramig, there have been no side effects… this time was totally different, I felt really sick for the whole week, suffered dizziness almost to the point of fainting, loss of appetite and far more auras manifested themselves than usual.
I feel it can only be down to taking Arimidex… luckily my GP gave me some tablets called Stemetil to combat the nausea and dizziness.
I’m not looking forward to my next cluster of headaches at all
Poor you, I hope the Stemetil works for you. Not sure if you are interested, but I vaguely remember a hat called “Migra-Cap”, it works in a similar manner to the cold cap. A lot of people have had some relief from their migraines through using this hat.
I think they cost about £30 to £40 , bit expensive, but can be used many times.
Maybe it might help you. Anything is worth a try??
Thanks for that Anny. TBH the severity of the headaches I get are more of a nuisance and controlled by on prescription Naramig. Over the years, I’ve only had 5 or 6 really severe attacks, the last one was 2006, which kept me to my bed for a week, the migraine tablets (Imigran) I was taking then, did naff all to help.
I have searched the net to see if there is any contra-indications between Arimidex and Naramig but can’t find any. Maybe it was just a one-off that I had the nausea this time and more disturbed vision than usual, there’s so many bugs doing the rounds at the moment… it might have been one on them.
