Medication Side-effects

I’ve been struggling with some side effects from the chemo pill I take.  At my ‘6 month’ appointment, I discussed it with my doctor and he switched me from Letrozole to Aromasin.  This was with the hopes that the awful ‘hip’ pain that made me feel like a 90 year old woman would improve or totally go away.  Well, the hip pain did lessen some, but never went away.  There were even more side effects that came though.  I started to also have knee pain in both knees, and also neuropathy from my elbows to my finger tips.  The worst was while I was sleeping … where I’d wake up and both arms, from the elbow down, would be totally numb.  I couldn’t even feel them!  Then, during the day, I’d have tingling and numbness come and go in both of my hands randomly throughout  the day.  Sometimes it would come as I was sitting at my desk at work typing.  Or, it would come on when I was standing talking to a co-worker or manager while I was holding my coffee.  Not fun .. at all.

At my ‘1 year’ appointment with my medical oncologist (the person who has prescribed this medication), I mentioned this and asked about going back on the previous drug … as the side effects were less and if I needed to take ibuprofen for pain everyday on the Aromasin, I’d prefer to do so on the Letrozole where I had less side effects.  Even though very painful, there were less of them.  He was happy to move me back on Letrozole as it was his preferred medicine for my case.

Well, I’ve been back on the Letrozole for about 1 month now, and the hip pain is back like gangbusters!  I have also starting having the occasional migraine headache – which is also a side-effect and not a walk in the park.  Those of you who suffer from migraines can attest to the painfulness and debilitation these bring on.  I am happy to report, however, that I no longer have the neuropathy in my hands/arms and my knee pain is now gone as well.  So … the lesser of the two evils is what I’m experiencing, but still quite painful nonetheless.

It is awful to realize that even though surgery has removed the cancer from you, and radiation has killed any rogue cancer cells that may have been hiding somewhere … you will still endure YEARS of pain from a pill you need to take to keep your system in a state where it’s not ripe for the cancer to come back and grow.

I have my good days and my bad days, but everyday is one filled with pain whenever I get up from a sitting position and start to walk.  I’ve made a “new year’s resolution” to walk more to help some … which will also to help combat the bone density loss that will also occur as a result of taking this medication.

On my bad days, I always try to remind myself that this is nothing in the scheme of things that others with cancer have had to endure.  Also, there is always someone who is worse off than me somewhere in the world … so I really don’t have anything to complain about.  Some days it’s easier than others to accept that, but I press on and continue to try anyway.