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LuckyLinda · 08-26-2014, 12:51 PM

I signed up and have been contacted. I have been taking Femara nightly for 2 years and my oncologist told me at my last visit (every 4 months now) that he will probably recommend I stay on it for the rest of my life as recent studies have shown that it significantly decreases the chance of recurrence. So.........whatever it takes. I have a lot of pain in my feet/spine/hips/hands but I'm not sure that I wouldn't have it anyway as I am 66 years old, have arthritis and degenerative disc disease in my spine and have muscle weakness issues related to polio (which I contracted at age 15 months). Ibuprofen 600 mg. three times a day usually relieves the pain. I also was thrown from a horse (1st time ever on a horse) 3 days before Christmas and suffered 4 broken ribs and a punctured lung requiring chest tube placement. It took 6 months to recover from the broken ribs and associated pain and stiffness. I have trouble walking (due to the polio), but I ride a bicycle and have worked my way up to 10 miles a day. I am almost 3 years post right mastectomy with positive lymph nodes (2), had TCH chemo, continued on Herceptin for a full year and went through 28 rads. I had my implants placed in April 2013. (Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither, it seems, is the reconstructed breast). So far I am NED and hope to stay that way.

08-26-2014, 12:51 PM	#9
LuckyLinda Senior Member Join Date: May 2012 Location: Virginia Beach, VA. Posts: 38	Re: Army of Women: ER Positive Study I signed up and have been contacted. I have been taking Femara nightly for 2 years and my oncologist told me at my last visit (every 4 months now) that he will probably recommend I stay on it for the rest of my life as recent studies have shown that it significantly decreases the chance of recurrence. So.........whatever it takes. I have a lot of pain in my feet/spine/hips/hands but I'm not sure that I wouldn't have it anyway as I am 66 years old, have arthritis and degenerative disc disease in my spine and have muscle weakness issues related to polio (which I contracted at age 15 months). Ibuprofen 600 mg. three times a day usually relieves the pain. I also was thrown from a horse (1st time ever on a horse) 3 days before Christmas and suffered 4 broken ribs and a punctured lung requiring chest tube placement. It took 6 months to recover from the broken ribs and associated pain and stiffness. I have trouble walking (due to the polio), but I ride a bicycle and have worked my way up to 10 miles a day. I am almost 3 years post right mastectomy with positive lymph nodes (2), had TCH chemo, continued on Herceptin for a full year and went through 28 rads. I had my implants placed in April 2013. (Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither, it seems, is the reconstructed breast). So far I am NED and hope to stay that way. __________________ Found lump by self-exam 10/14/11 HER2neu +/Estrogen +/progesterone - Grade III poorly differentiated R side modified radical mastectomy on 12/09/11 with immediate reconstruction (expander) Stage IIB 2 nodes + out of 10 removed Double power port inserted 1/11/12 Chemo therapy (TCH) - every 21 days for 6 cycles beginning 1/25/12 Finished chemo on 5/21/12 Continue Herceptin only every 3 weeks until 12/28/12 Radiation (28 rads) began 6/26/2012. Will start Femara after radiation ends (8/03/12) From: It's Not About the Hair: "The hope for healing is not born out of a fear of death, but a love of life.This is a very good thing. When people love life more than they fear death, they come to treatment with open hands, open hearts, open eyes.When people fear death more than they love life, they are clinging and clutching and grasping."