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Old 08-25-2011, 08:20 AM   #91
AlaskaAngel
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Alaska
Posts: 2,018
Recognizing the problem and defining it clearly

Glad to see you too, Tanya!

On an entirely subjective level, I feel that the metformin may also have slightly increased my general energy level, as well as (very oddly) returned to me some of my sense of taste and smell that was lost at the time of original treatment, although I can't measure those things or explain why that would be so.

I do think that part of the honest recognition by the medical profession about the very real problems encountered by patients who have undergone treatment that handicaps addressing the problem effectively is the lack of a specific term (or terms) to identify and express it accurately. One patient has posted on the general forum about her success with weight loss using metformin through the assistance of her medical provider and she uses the term "insulin resistance". At a visit with the endocrinologist that I had in which he used a wide range of lab tests and my history in the consult for me, he could not give me any name for the problem as he felt it certainly was not diabetes, but he wasn't using the term insulin resistance either. The registered dietitian that I saw at the Seattle cancer center doesn't have a term for it either.

That makes it also harder to deal with in terms of after-treatment and long-term prevention and care because insurance companies don't have a clear way to authorize the treatment for it.

That is a suggestion of sorts on my part. Thanks SO much for your continuing interest in our welfare, Tanya.

AlaskaAngel
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Dx 2002 age 51
bc for granny, aunt, cousin, sister, mother.
ER+/PR+/HER2+++, grade 3
IDC 1.9 cm, some DCIS, Stage 1, Grade 3
Lumpectomy, CAFx6 (no blood boosters), IMRT rads, 1 3/4 yr tamoxifen
Rads necrosis
BRCA 1 & 2 negative
Trials: Early detection OVCA; 2004 low-dose testosterone for bc survivors
Diet: Primarily vegetarian organic; metformin (no diabetes), vitamin D3
Exercise: 7 days a week, 1 hr/day
No trastuzumab, no taxane, no AI
NED
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