[v-ness]

i must confess, i have just become non-compliant after a mere 3 months my misery from tamoxifen is so severe. i only just stopped on tuesday and told my oncologist so on thursday when i went in for my herceptin appointment. i told him i would rather have puked my guts out for 3 months of chemo than deal with the havoc tamoxifen wreaks on my life. it wasn't so bad at first. the joint pain (knees) i can live with. just need to make sure that when i squat i have something nearby to grab onto to help get up, or get enough bounce to catapult myself upward. but the hot flashes and night sweats? unimaginable. chemo launched me into chemopause (i'd had a partial hysterectomy 8 months before cancer diagnosis but i know i was still perimenopausal despite lack of a period for lack of a uterus). i got hot flashes from it, but managed them pretty well with neurontin. but neurontin is nothing against tamoxifen. i don't know if the summer heat and humidity has increased the hot flashes/night sweats, but they have certainly intensified in the last month. i look like i've been doused with a hose. my face is beaded with pearls of sweat and it literally pours off my face, drips onto my chest. my arms and legs even sweat, something i only ever had happen when working hard on a humid day. any of you with these same severe symptoms know the drill. while on tamoxifen it happened literally dozens of times a day/night. i get that warning aura too, so i have a minute's notice that it's coming. it got so that my sleep was disrupted continually and i could barely get up for work in the morning.

how the hell did they put a man on the moon and cure male erectile dysfunction, and they can't do anything to curb hot flashes?

i am beside myself. i am something like 95% ER positive so i need this CRAP. i asked the onco the other day what my other options were and to my disbelief he said none. they can try me on effexor or black cohosh. has anyone had any luck on either of those? i am loathe to start taking the evil drug again. on my little hiatus the number of hot flashes i've had has at least halved.

what is the ER tx someone mentioned above?

me, i am heavily considering having my lone ovary out. i have an appt with my gyno on 8/9 about it. before it was just out of fear of cancer spread (and i've also had pain in my remaining ovary anyway). now i wonder if i got it out, would i then be post-menopausal and therefore have other drug options? or is it just more of the same living hell?

even as i write this i've had to throw off the sheet and turn on the fan, wipe my brow with my ever-constant bedside rag. and that's with the AC on full blast.

my cat Big thinks i'm awful tasty. every morning i wake to him licking the salt off my body. at least someone is enjoying this.

valerie

p.s. i've been taking evening primrose. doesn't help one bit.