Well, hey, everyone! I’m doing something a little different with this week’s post: starting to write it on Sunday evening! I still won’t publish it till Wednesday morning as usual, but I’m going to add to it every day.
The reason is, after hemming and hawing and futzing around and making the mistake of looking up the possible side effects on Google,
I started taking my prescription for Arimidex, the brand name for Anastrozole, tonight (Sunday, 4/3/2022, at about 5:45 pm, give or take a few minutes) — the first of what’s supposed to be five YEARS of taking this verkakte medicine.
The reason I’m taking it is because apparently my breast cancer is “hormone receptive positive,” which means it feeds on estrogen. And as I understand it (and I don’t, really), this stuff keeps any incoming testosterone from turning into estrogen, so I guess I’ll have to stay away from Florida for the duration.
The problem is, though, a lot of body parts kinda depend on estrogen, so basically they’re gonna have to be deprived of fuel for a while. Sorta like in WWII when they had to ration pretty much everything!
I’m hoping my various & sundry cells & body parts will be as willing to share the burden as folks were back in the ’40s, and not like certain people today who can’t be bothered to wear a little piece of cloth over their noses to protect others from their disease-ridden snot!
(Oh no – they said one of the side effects of this stuff is irritability! Maybe it’s starting already! Oh wait … nah … that’s just my normal self!)
Anyway, I’m going to save this now, go on about my daily life, and check in every day to report any *REAL* side effects I might be feeling! Catch ya later!
MONDAY: So far, so good! After taking the first pill yesterday, I did start yawning profusely.
But that was about it! And other than that, I feel fine. Even went for a walk this morning!
We’ll see what happens tomorrow!
TUESDAY: Yeah, here we are, I just took dose #3 and so far I haven’t grown horns or a third arm or anything weird, so I think maybe I’m gonna be okay! Also, I’ve come across this encouraging thread at breastcancer.org where some of posters speculate that women who had an easy time during menopause don’t seem to have as many problems with Arimidex. And I pretty much sailed through The Change with little or no change to my equilibrium, and only a couple of hot flashes, so I’m feeling pretty optimistic right now!
I’ll let you know if anything does happen. Meanwhile, hope YOU have a great week!
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