With consultation, I am on a 1 month holiday from taking anastrazol, whilst on my holiday abroad. I organised it so that I was off the medication for a couple of weeks before I went away and the breathlessness started then but only in a small, manageable way. I thought my aches and pains would ease off, which they have done for the most part. What I do have now though is crippling breathlessness. We’ve had to resort to me using a wheelchair because I’m not able to walk very far without losing my breath and the recovery time seems to be quite a long time. I’m wondering if it’s acute anxiety. It’s truly awful. I’ll be back on the anastrazol in a week’s time. I wish I’d bought them with me. I’ve got a post- medication holiday review after I get back and I’m doing a journal too. I feel absolutely awful.
Hi @sim1 and welcome to the forum. I’m sorry you’re having a rough time especially on a much needed holiday. All I can offer is that I’ve been on Letrozole (essentially the same as Anastrozole) for 2y 8m but have had two drug holidays for different reasons, one for 6 weeks and one for 10 weeks in agreement with my BC nurse. I am in my late 60s. My SE are different to yours (all manageable) but all of them abated after about 5 weeks on the breaks. Obviously I’m not medically trained but it sounds like you could be having panic attacks, particularly if you’re regretting not have your tablets with you. Perhaps putting this question to our nurses here Welcome to Ask our Nurses might help if you can’t get any help where you are. It is very disappointing for you to feel so poorly on holiday but in my layman’s viewpoint, I can’t imagine that clinically not taking the drug would make you feel worse, I certainly enjoyed the peep above the SE clouds on my breaks. Good luck in getting some answers.
Thank you for your reply. I’m 73 and have been on anastrazol for 2 years. It does feel like panic attacks/ acute anxiety. I was so looking forward to a holiday without aches and pains. Seems that my mind has it’s own issues 
Definitely get all of this into your review and see if they can offer some sort of counselling or, at least, point you in the direction where you could get some talking therapy. I’m slightly over half way of a 5 year program and don’t think I’ll have a problem just stopping when it comes to it but there are women on here who find it extremely stressful to give up their endocrine comfort blanket when they reach the end - perhaps you have a variant of this anxiety? It’s a bugger when you’re damned with SE if you take it and damned with panic attacks if you don’t.
I am hopeful that there will be other respondents along who have had a similar experience, with some advice.
Everything about this journey is scary and not taking your medication even though the rational part of your brain knows why and that your clinicians have agreed to it is probably causing some internal conflict even on a subconscious level . However from what I understand it takes about 6 weeks for the medication to fully wash out of your system and you will be back on it before then.
Make sure you get yourself properly checked out though though just in case . So sorry that this has spoiled your holiday as well . Xx