[sassy]

Hey Karen,

I did my own study on Three AI's to determine which had the most tolerable side effects.

I was on Arimidex for 6 years with significant joint stiffness, mostly in the morning, hands especially. My GP suggested trying Lasix to combat the stiffness and it actually helped.

I next tried Femara for six months to determine it's side effects. Stiffness still there, hands were better, but feet were significantly worse.

Nest was Aromasin for six months. Worst by far. My hips became so bad that I could barely walk. Took a few months to recover rom that.

So I went back to Arimidex.

While I felt that my hips were improving, I was having issues with either upper legs or hips that I could not figure out. So I finally went to an orthopedist to have them checked. Turned out that I had stress fractures in my femurs as a result of long term use of Zometa to address bone loss. The Zometa did build my bones, but the fractures are a little known anomaly.

So now I'm off everything--scarey--giving my body a break, trying to get my legs to heal. Ortho says it make take a while. We will check again next month to see if the healing has progressed.

So for me---Arimidex was the lesser of the three evils.

As for bisphosphonates, be aware that long term use--over five years--carried some risk of femur fracture. I'm glad I took Zometa and benefitted from it--I just would have stopped sooner had I been aware of the fracture possibility.

My best to you,