[sarah]

Hello Tricia,
she had severe pain in her chest and they feel the embolism was caused by the Femara which she's been taking for 3 years. She's also had radiation but no chemo
I also took Femara for 6 years and had radiation. Then last year I had a heart attack and I've had fibrosis in my lung for years now both were apparently due to the radiation but now I'm wondering if the Femara wasn't partly to blame??? I'm off Femara and was before my heart attack/ extreme chest pain and breathlessness.
Her pain was at the bottom of her breast and strong. she's no wimp although I've been telling everyone about my chest pain turning out to be a heart attack and having to have angioplasty and a stent put in because I don't want other people to be stupid like me and possibly die from a preventable heart attack. I thought I had winter asthma!!!!
so if you have pain in the chest area, do have it checked out by a cardiologist and if it might be lung, a pneumonologist also. better to be safe. unfortunately my artery was only shown on an angioscan (not sure of the word in English) but a scintigraphie (ENglish???) showed the damaged heart from the heart attack and that apparently can't be healed but the artery is open and the pain is gone for me.
My friend is in hospital for a week, with oxygen, anti-inflammatories and anti-clot infusion and she is in intensive care. It sounds as if she may stay on Femara!!! but her oncologist is not at the hospital until Monday when hopefully things will become clearer. The pain was gone. she wanted to have a foot operated on (she's a big hiker) that was causing her pain but was told that's out of the question for ever!
A friend who's on Raloxofene has heard that all anti-ER drugs have the potential to cause clots - she reads lots of medical stuff. I'll see my oncologist next week and may ask about this.
Boy the side effects can be deadly! Still the heart op was so much easier than any of the cancer stuff!!!
stay healthy and happy
love sarah