[Barbara2]

After finishing chemo, my onc started me on Arimidex. He said that sometimes people may complain of some bone or muscle pain when taking Arimidex, so he suggested that I take Celebrex. He said that there is some belief that Cox 2 inhibitors such as Celebrex, may provide benefit with fighting Her2+ factors. He thought it could help with any aches and pains, plus it might help fight the Her2+, and therefore be a double benefit.

I took it for about 13 months before going to my onc with foggy brain and big time fatigue and questioning if it could be the Celebrex. He suggested that I stop the Celebrex. I did, and felt better right away.

I had been taking 200 mg. twice daily. One time when seeing my family doctor for some issue, he commented that 400 mg. of daily Celebrex was a pretty high dose. It was sometime later that I began to realize that possibly the Celebrex was the reason for feeling so lousy.

When I questioned Dr. Pegram about taking Celebrex for occasional aches and pains, he said, "If you do it sporadically once in a while, it’s not going to help at all. The standard dose of Celebrex doesn’t work in breast cancer. There’s still some question about the high dose, but these drugs could cause cardio-vascular mortality so if you don’t have metastatic disease I probably wouldn’t recommend it. High dose: 400 bid. If you’re in remission, you should not take Cox 2 inhibitors."

Looking back, I'm hoping that possibly the Celebrex did bring some benefit.