Hi,
well after delaying my change over from nolvadex to femare for my daughter’s wedding, then feeling tired, then a cold, I have run out of reasons not to do it. So despite the most horrendous list of side effects I took my first one tonight. Waiting to see what develops as feeling slightly headachey already. Could be psychological i guess.
Day one done and dusted. Don’t you just hate changing anything?
Hoping this finds you ok
Lily x
I was on Femara pre-surgery and it shrank the tumour so much that the surgery was not as drastic as originally planned. I carried on taking it for around six months post-surgery but then changed to Tamoxifen. As regards your headache - I think it takes a while for any side-effects to show up.
The main side-effect I had from Femara was vaginal dryness. This continued on Tamoxifen but the difference is that you can use locally applied oestrogen cream with Tamoxifen but it is not reccommended to use it with Femara.
Hope you get on all right with it - we’re all different and have different reactions.
AlexG
Hello Lily
I have been taking Fermara for nine months after my second recurrence. I wont say I have no side effects but they are very minimal. My hair has thinned, although I seem to be the only one to notice, at first I had hot flushes and felt sick but that seems to have worn off.
With regards to vaginal dryness, I saw my oncologist yesterday and she said she had no problem with me using a locally applied oestrogen cream and would write to my Gp to say she could prescribe it.
I don’t know if our age makes a difference to what side effects we get, I am 62.
Hope you get on all right.
Take care.
Jan
janice ask your gp to prescribe Replens its recommended by the breast care nurses for vaginal dryness
sue
Thanks Sue
I have been using Replens for a while with no problems but all of a sudden it has started to course irritation for some reason.
Other than that it doesn’t really solve the real problem does it?
Jan
Hi,(tablet 2)
well the headache did not appear so just a brief fuzzy feeling. I couldn’t believe my luck as I woke up with my feet doing what feet are supposed to do - no more concrete boots and feet that won’t bend when i wake up. I have not been able to walk downstairs because my feet wouldn’t bend and had to wander for 5 minutes every day. Today after missing just one tamoxifen those symptoms have gone. I have been seeing a podiatrist and the GP thought my achilles tendon was peeling off but it was the tablet! I did have an odd feeling in my hand and I have been told the Tam goes for the feet and femara the hands and fingers, so that could be starting. Well relieved no herat attacks, strokes, allergic reactions, swollen body and all the other horrid things it mentioned. Off to see how tablet 2 gets me. Thank for replying, just what I need something embarassing to talk to the doctor about, for a change! Oh well, better see what happens
Thanx
Lily x
Hi Lily,
Glad you seem to be getting on well. If your experience echoes mine, make the most of the next few days/weeks - that spell of coming off tamoxifen and before the Femara SE kicked in was the best I had felt since diagnosis. Like you say, I had not appreciated just what an effect the tamoxifen had been having on me. Hopefully you’ll find the femara easier to cope with,
Best wishes
Jx
Hi (tablet 3)
well another good morning with flexible feet and very little heel pain so making the most of it. Not feeling warm at all so hope this is not the calm before the storm!!
Geewizz I will try to heed your words and not get too hopeful of an easy time. What are your main symptoms on femara?
Lily x
Hi all,
Was given Femara this week after last tax and told to start in 3 weeks, was expecting Tamoxifan but for some reason they have changed it. Any advice/what to expect hints would be greatly received.
Thanks Anne x
Hi Lily / Anne (tablet 100 I think!)
My side effects on femara are/were:
- joint stiffness. Less than on tamoxifen
- hot flushes. Had theese on tamoxifen too, although they settled down after a few months. Not too bad at the moment, and hoping they will settle for me on femara too
- migraines. Had a spell of 10 days of migraines, but all passed now
Good luck!
Jx
Hi (tablet 4)
well woke up to better movement in my feet but not as good as the day before. Still no other symptoms except very tired compared to normal. It will be a shock if my insomnia goes after all this time. I have fallen asleep on the sofa twice today and got up at 9.45 this morning!Unheard of for me. Not even the slightest hint of warmth in fact rather chilly all day.Good luck Richo and well done for finishing chemo, no rads? Geewhizz hoping to miss the headaches.
Love
Lily x
Lily - With regards to your fingers, I have a couple of slightly painful finger joints, but nothing much. I put the rest of this on one of the other threads about Letrozole.
I started Letrozole at the beginning of November last year and have the normal side effects associated with low oestrogen. Actually, they started when I was diagnosed, as I stopped taking HRT immediately.
I have stiff knees, a painful neck, tinnitus, disturbed sleep and tiredness, a rubbish memory and a strange anxious feeling which is hard to describe. It is not a worrying sort of anxiety, more a chemical one. Someone else on here described it as a jittery feeling. I am also much warmer than I used to be. I always felt the cold before, but not any longer. I am too hot at night, but I don’t have sweats as such. I am thirsty too, but I think that may be the calcium I am also taking.
At the start, I did have some nausea but as I was having rads at the time, I wasn’t sure which was causing it, although I did think it was the rads. It might be an idea to take the tablet at a different time of the day, or with a meal, if you are getting stomach problems.
I do find the stairs seem much steeper than before and I also find I shuffle over the carpet, rather than picking my feet up properly and it is harder to get out of the bath! At the start, my toes used to hurt in the morning but that has gone now.
Writing all this down makes it sound much worse than it is. I think I have got used to most of it now. The symptoms are not so severe that I would stop taking the drug, as I am very grateful that I do have something to help stop a recurrence. I take Cod Liver Oil, Glucosamine Sulphate and Chondroitin and Evening Primrose Oil, which I feel help. I also think a lot of the symptoms are just at the start, although some can get worse as time progresses, such as the stiff joints.
Hope you don’t suffer too much.
Ann x
Hi (tablet 5)
a really good day, no flushes, no stiffness and feet feeling so much better that I feel about 20 years younger. Well better remember this nice day from what you are saying Ann. I hope to miss some of those side effects.Did you go straight on to femara? I have been on nolvadex, an expensive form of tamoxifen since Dec 2008 so not new to these annoying effects unfortunately.Have a good week.
Lily x
Hi again Lily, I have been on Femara ( Letrozole) for quite a few months now and so far so good. I will see my Consultant in early June and hopefully she will be able to say how well it is working for me. But the side effects are minimal now and I am pleased with it so far. Hope it is doing it’s job for you. Love Val
Lily
Yes, I went straight onto Femara. Please don’t think these side effects are really bad because they are not. I would have had some of them after stopping HRT, anyway.
Good luck!
Ann x
Hi (tablet 6)
what a fab day completely side effect free. Hope this isn’t the calm before the storm!!
Lily x
Hi,
well I thought things were moving nice and slowly, must have jinxed myself. On Thursday night I had to go into A & E with a haemorraging eye. They say it is fine, a coincidence that I had chnaged tablets recently and keep taking them. The breast care nurses, when I rang, told me to stop my femara immediately and are trying to get me an emergency appointment. So I went to see my GP, who agrees with the other doc that they are not connected. Then told me to come back if it happened again! It looks really grim, cherry red like a thick blood blister to the whole of the side of my eye and above and below as far as you can see.Today it has crept round under the coloured part and I now have one green eye and one brown one. Anyone else had something like this?
Lily x
Lily
I often get “red eye” and have done so long before bc. It is usually when I am very tired or have eye-strain. As you say, quite gruesome. I am on Femara and I think I may have had it once since starting the tablets, but I don’t really think it is connected.
Ann x
Hi,
thanks Ann, that is reassuring. I have never had it before so rather out of character. At least the GP checked my BP as that can be a cause. He did say it was rather a large one and may take a week to go. I am no longer worried just fed up of people staring as very little white left now
Lily
Lily
Yes, I was going to ask if you had had your BP checked. I suppose if you keep getting it, you may need to investigate more. Has it started draining away yet?
Ann x