hi all …you have all made me feel so much better knowing that I am not alone feeling so desperately unhappy …I am unbearable to live with always picking at my husband …he mentioned a holiday !!! thought of just me and him somewhere for a week or two without the kids or the dogs OMG NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Couldnt mentally handle that !!! I already take citalopram …but never felt this bad before Tamoxifen any poss that they counteract each other …now I have it in my head that my cancer will come back …dear god what is wrong with me ?
Thank god for this forum …would have been taken away by the white coats ages ago …lol 
I got my results yesterday and started on Tamoxifen yesterday too. I have had a headache ever since perhaps its the tablets, or just pure relief after being so stressed and in pain…was just logging on to see what side effects you are all experiencing…
My results were good. A grade 1 small tumour, all tissue surrounding was clear as were the four nodes sampled. I am suffering badly with my arm though. Parts hypersensitive and back of arm and pit completely numb nearly 3 weeks after surgery. Lots of shooting pains and feel like a lead weight… any ideas??
Thanks
Lisa
HI everyone.just reading the letters from yesterday and like you Mazaroo dont want to go on holiday but am going in two weeks time.My hubby and friends cant understand why I dont want to go but have an enthuisism and am trying to get him to go with someone else.Like you Salopets I have bad headaches and just want to hide quietly in the house not kid on I am enjoying myself maybe if I let him read your letter he will think twice about making me go!Does anyone know if we can get free prescriptions now as I read somewhere that we could.Its great to keep in touch with you all and hope that we can help each other to keep our spirits up!Take care all. Joyce.
hi Joyce …yeah Got my exemption card form from my GP took about two weeks to come if you get receipts from your pharmacist while you are waiting you can claim the money back when you get the card .
think my husband has given up on me now …we are just housemates !nothing more all because of this bloody BC !!!
Maz xxxxxx
Hi all, it is comforting to know that I’m not the only one who feels like this, but what do we do to make things better? its a good job we don’t have to pay for prescriptions it would really put the top hat on it if I had to pay for feeling like this.
I’m definately going to speak to the bcn next week, I’m reluctant to see my GP incase he prescribes anti-depressants because I know that I wouldn’t want to take them. Is there anything herbal that would restore the ‘feel good factor’? Love Olwen
Thanx maz thats great will look into getting the form from doctors and will do that.Maybe we should send our husbands away together on holiday and get them off our backs!Outsiders always say "you will feel better about yopurself soon"but how long is that!Its great to chat with everyone and keep each others spirits up.Take care.Joyce xxxx
Hi, can i hop in! I just need to get this off my chest! I am really really reall really finding the tamoxifen difficult. I changed brands to Nolvadex D and the side effects seem to have gt a lot worse. Im eating so healthily but every week i weigh myself im a pound heavier. I seriously am at my wits end. I think that I have depression now too! the constant hot flushes, night sweat and pain in my bones is just making me worse. I find it really hard to work too as I am just tired constantly. Its awful! Im hoping that the cancr doesnt come back and one day I can take the tamoxifen for the last time and completely stick my fingers up to it, dont get me wrong im greatful that its helping me, but it aint half making my life a misery.
Hi …It does suck taking this med .and five years is a long time and is there any guarantee that the cancer wont return ?? its just a lottery …at the moment I seem to spend my life just upsetting people cant seem to say or do the right thing is it Tamoxifen or is it me maybe I am just a bitch and trying to blame something else …i was never like this before BC …I am so negativrye, dark thoughts ,constant headache ,and can cry at the drop of a hat !! And yet despite all this I quote “you are so brave !” good actress more like …i just want it to go away ! Thank god to you all for listening to my whining xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Maz xx
I spoke to the radiographers at rads on Tuesday and told them I needed to speak to someone about tamoxifen. So I’m seeing the onc tomorrow when I go for rads. Hopefully, she can come up with some answers, but I’m definitely not going to put up with feeling like this for 5 years!
Joyce, the exemption card comes through quite quickly, but if you need to pay for prescriptions in the meantime, keep your receipts and you will be able to claim the fees back.
Olwen, I too don’t want anti-depressants. I don’t see the point of taking something to deal with the SEs of tamoxifen, which then cause more SEs themselves. St John’s Wort is the classic herbal anti-depressant, but you can’t take it with tamoxifen:(
Maz - it’s not you, it’s the drugs. I have days when I could cry at the drop of a hat and other days when I’m crabby as hell. I didn’t feel like this before tamoxifen, even when I had a 9 week delay between dx and surgery. I started taking tamoxifen 3 months after dx and I had got used to the idea of having bc and I was really quite upbeat about it. It’s not the bc that bothers me, it’s the prospect of feeling like his for 5 years.
Sal x
Hi all hope no one has murdered anyone today felt like it a few times myself.How can one wee tablet be giving us all sooooooo much bother!Maz good luck tomorrow and maybe you will get some answers and let us all know because I am finding it hard to get my bc nurse to even answer my call when I leave a message.My rads stopped end of march and is it “out of sight out of mind”.Went to my GP today for exemption form and was told that people in Scotland with cancer dont qualify for exemption!So will have to move before I can qualify how unfair is that!We are supposed to have a lovely week-end here do you think that might help the moods to have a bit of sunshine or am I just clutching at straws! Take care all and keep your chins up.Joycexxx
Hi
Here is a link to current information on prescription charges on the BCC website which includes information for people living in Scotland, which I hope will be useful:
breastcancercare.org.uk/server/show/nav.558
Kind Regards,
Kate
Facilitator
Thanks Kate have accessed that site thats a good help.Joyce
Sal, I know what you mean. In January 2008 my mum broke her hip and I looked after her for six months. Then in August 2008 I got my dx, coped with that plus deciding about whether to have a reconstruction, had a mastectomy, coped with receiving results, getting over operation and sorting out prosthesis then four months after taking Tamoxifen I couldn’t even make a phone call or stand in a queue in the supermarket without getting anxiety attacks so bad they made my blood pressure soar. When I told the registrar at my last appointment he said “Anxiety isn’t a side effect of Tamoxifen”!!
Love
Maude xx
o m g I love this post !!! cannot believe that so many of us feel this way .I unfortunately was already taking citalopram before I got BC as I had just previously lost both my parents just eight weeks apart …talk about devastation …so I think that it is the Tamoxifen just excacerbates things …I am yet to commit murder …but came close last weekend !!! Sunshine …no that will not make me feel better … five years of this I will have no family …no friends but what the hell …no cancer …hopefully .Its a lot to scarifice for a little white tablet !!..After 18 mths I think that I am now really beginning to get on peoples nerves …cos I am certainly getting on my own …I was never this bad when I first started taking it …sick of going to see BCN or GP they think that I am a hypochondriac or just a miserable old cow !!! most defo the latter MOOOOOOOOO.
laters Maz x
Hi All
I too am on Tamooxifen and perhaps I am a little older than some of you (59)The consultant told me that it would make my hot flushes worse which I found very hard to believe as I have been having 16-20 a day for the last 10 YEARS. My comment was “well they will just be continuous then!!” The BC nurse told me to try Red Clover tablets which is safe with Tamo so I am taking 3 a day and my flushes are no worse than before. I am not going to stop them just in case.
The other SE like temper, impatience and depression are the same as with the menopause anyway. So I have come to the conclusion that my menopause has just been extended by 5 years! My hubby says he cannot remember what I was like before its been so long, I have always been a miserable old moo! (Not true)
So girls keep you spirits up, it happens to lots of us whatever our age and we must try and stay positive. I dont take anything for my mood swings but I know what you all mean about hating feeling this way.
I did try chinese medicine and acupunture/massage last year (6 weeks course £400)before BC but it did not work for me. The Chinese believe in a good diet, nothing to eat for 4hrs before bedtime and no hot spicy foods, which is the only part of my treatment I would say has any effect at all on hot flushes.
Like you Mazaroo the sunshine does not help as at the moment I am having Rads so have to keep out of it, dont care if it pours for the next 3 weeks!
love to all Wendy xx
HI ALL
I am suffering terribly on Tamoxifen, tired all the time, eyesight probs, miserable, I already been suffering fron chronic fatique for 20 years now this, well what can I say I have absolutely no energy to fight with feel like giving up.
I am not bloated is this another symptom of Tamox xxx
Sorry meant to say now bloated on last post xxx
Hi all,
Libby, I think everything that isn’t pleasant is a side effect of tamoxifen, my skirts are tight, my shoes are tight and now I can’t get my rings off and I put it all down to fluid retention, I feel like a camel storing water but I don’t think I’ve got bad breath like a camel, but there again I might have but my lovely husband John wouldn’t dare tell me.
Olwen X
HI
Spoke to bc nurse today, and she says ask the doc if I can stop taking tamox for 2 weeks to see if it them thhts causing my symptoms, or ask if the doc can give me 10mg tablet in morning and 10mg tablet at night.any others doing this ?. X
Saw the onc today and when I told her the long list of SEs I was having she told me to stop taking it for 2 weeks to see how I feel. I asked about changing brand and she said I could try that as some people find they have fewer SEs on a different brand. I was tested to see if I was menopausal when I originally saw the onc (I’m 52), but as I’m having rads at a different hospital, she didn’t have the results to hand. If I am they can try me on an aromatose inhibitor. I came home this afternoon and went to bed for 2 hours - something I would never do normally.
Soooo, I’m not going to take any this weekend and then speak to my GP on Monday about a different brand. I’ll decide then whether to take the 2 week “holiday” or switch.
I just want to feel normal - not too much to ask surely?