Hi, I’m new to the site, and also to posting, but was very interested to read of other’s experiences of SEs.
I had one session of chemo, following a lumpectomy in October. The chemo was then stopped, due to a bad reaction. I’m on Tamoxifem and having Herceptin, and I’ve just started Rads. Its therefore difficult to know what treatment exactly is causing which side effect.
I’ve experienced palpitations, and high blood pressure (never had a problem before), and menopausal symptoms – hot flushes, sleepless nights due to being so hot in bed. I also run out of enery by mid afternoon. The most worrying one for me has been hand tremors ( yet to discuss with the Dr, but presumably exacerbated by blood pressure, stress etc). I wonder if anyone else has had this problem?
Mared
Hi Mared ,
I had mx, and Fec T chemo followed by 5 years of tamoxifen, which I still take. The Chemo sent me into a chemically induced menopause and the Tamoxifen caused me to feel loopy. I also had hot flushes, night sweats and could not sleep. I was prescribed sleeping tabets, anti depressants and I also had Counselling from the Cancer Psychologist. I am not saying you are going to get all these symptoms but just to let you know you are not alone with the side affects. You will get through them and be stronger for it all. Sending you love and hugs and positive vibes Tracy xxx
Hi I am Liz finished treatment in August 2011. I had the shakes with radio theraphy almost like I had gone into shock shaking all over for up to and hour or so, only other time I had experienced it was after a car crash. It was like my body had gone into shock. Also very tired.
Tomoxifen gave me a mans voice, depression, thoughs of suicide burts of anger I smashed saucepans up and all sorts of irrtability issues hot flushes all night so bad I had to change bed sheets and got very little sleep and in the daytime and generally feeling unwell, stopped taking it after 6 weeks and all side effects had pretty much gone after about 72 hours! I wouldn’t touch the stuff again. My husband said I was behaving completly abnormal for me. Don’t know if that helps. Cheers Liz
Jasper, your SEs sound horrendous on Tamoxifen very extream but hopefully quite rare , am not sure if you are post menopausal but if you are possible one of the AIs might affect you less badly?.Or if your pre meno some ladies sometimes consider haveing overy abation i think then they are able to be put on a AI , just another option if your worried at all about haveing some sort of protection still. (not easy all this rubbish i know)
Luckily for me (Ive been on Tamoxifen twice now) and have had few SEs both times,thankfully i have pretty much found them a doddle, but we are all different and all the different treatments affect us all in different ways sometimes. Regarding Herceptin, ive had the drippy nose an irritateing tickly cough which ive had for 6 mths and i get breathless with excertion, (though all heart Muga scans so far have come back ok) so just a reaction im told, but likewise a lot of people seem to have no SEs with herceptin ,bar the drippy nose.
Mared, the tremors could be connected to your blood pressure or stress, and the heart palpations may be caused by stress also or possibly rarely to treatments, they are awfull i know, as ive suffered with them for yrs myself, even pre BC, but you should have regular Muga scans to keep a check on how well your heart is working on herceptin which will hopefully be able to put your mind at rest, do make sure your med team knows about any new symptoms you may be haveing though, as its always best to get these things checked out ,hope things settle down and you start to feel much better very soon . All the best to you,
Linda x
I am new to the site,in fact my first post. I also take tamoxifen and on herception (three to go). I am post menopausal. SE’s I have are drippy nose, hot flushes, night sweats and joint pains. I take evening primose which as reduced the night sweats and take omega supplements for my joints which is helping. I do have one side effect that they say might be from the tamoxifen is carpul tunnel syndrome which is pins and needles and tingling in my left hand had the nerve test done which wasnt very nice but discovered that it is in my right hand but not as bad. JayD x
I have just started Tomoxifen - night sweats, hot flushes and nausea 
I finished Herceptin 6 months ago and having had terrible palpitations all through treatment they are now easing. Most oncs said that there are no SEs and made me feel that I was fussing about nothing but one simply said that it was my body’s way of reacting to the treatment and that it would improve once treatment had stopped. This seems to be true. I do still have a drippy nose and my fingernails are continuing to split down the middle but, hopefully, these will go too.
I also get glorious hot flushes and night sweats from Tamoxifen but have found that accupuncture and visualisation (not something I have ever taken to before) have really helped.
I’m also still very tired but not as bad as this time last year when I’d just finished seven months of chemo, bilateral mx and rads. Onwards and upwards!