Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Rosy]

Hi, i have returned to the forum after about 8 years away on HRT. In March i saw a photograph on facebook of a lady with indentations on her breast which turned out to be breast cancer.  I had a similar indent but nothing showed up on my mammogram in 2016.  I went to my gp in March and she referred me to the hospital, after 2 biopsies it was found to be breast cancer, i had a lumpectomy last week and 2 lymph nodes removed and am waiting for my results next week.
Needless to say i came off my HRT within a week, too fast i know but i just had to stop it. My hot sweats have come back with a vengeance much worse than before. I am also to start taking an anti hormone tablet to stop the oestrogen so they will get even worse if that is possible. Would love to hear from anyone else in a similar position, its like srarting the menopause all over again

[CLKD]

Bugga.  Who were you B4?  Hopefully the lymph nodes will be clean, it's the waiting that I found so difficult.

Tamoxifen almost killed me.  Make sure that what ever you are prescribed doesn't have a risk of womb cancer, my friend took Tamoxifen and developed it.  I stopped as I didn't feel ill during diagnosis and treatment ....... I believe that there are other types of oestrogen blockers so do talk long and hard about it.  I also had a lumpectomy, lymph nodes removed followed by radiation. 

Let us know how you get on 

[jillydoll]

Hi rosy
So sorry to hear your news, and I can't offer any advice because
I haven't been in your shoes, but it must be agony waiting for the
results, someone's always on here ,as you know, so if the need
arises to sound off, then do so.
Sending you best wishes,
Jd x.   

[Salad]

Welcome back - sorry it's under these challenging circumstances.

 

[Hurdity]

Welcome back Rosy. So sorry to hear this. As CLKD says, also a friend of mine developed uterine cancer after taking the drug to block oestrogen having had breast cancer.

There are medications that can be taken to alleviate hot flushes and there is a paper outlining which ones are recommended with special reference to tamoxifen. You can find it here:
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2053369117711646?hootPostID=6690d93930a10b86869c48433ab506e7&

Hope this helps and all the best. I may have "known" you before as I first joined in early 2010 but didn't really  start posting until 2011 and then had a break for a few months - so perhaps not!

Hurdity x

[Rosy]

Thank you all for your comments and help, I think my name was Red Devil before.
I don't know which medication I will be taking yet, I had a chat with the breast nurse and she mentioned a few. How awful to go through breast cancer, take the tablets and then go on to get another cancer from them.
I have been trying to follow a healthy diet since the sweats have returned including flax seeds and linseed, can these be harmful now if they are suggested as a help?

[CLKD]

Flax seeds should be OK.  Linseed is the liquid form.  When growing in the fields it follows the sun, opening pale blue ....... I have a red variety here too.  Difficult to grow in the garden, it tends to get lost 

How R U feeling in general?

[Rosy]

Thank you CLKD I am feeling fine in myself but the dressing under my arm has been uncomfortable and very smelly! I went to the nurse at my GP yesterday and they changed the dressing for a foam one and different sticky strips. The other dressing caused blisters where it was pulling at the edges which were painful but it feels a lot better today.
Are you saying that the liquid linseed should be ok and not the seeds, i. Have not come across them in liquid form.

[CLKD]

Linseed is the same as flax ;-).  Used to be grown on the Queen's Estate at Sandringham.  It's a different form of delivery, I found it impossible to crack the seeds  . 

Glad that the dressing has been changed, it is important 2 feel comfy 

[Kathleen]

Hello  Rosy.


So sorry to hear your news and I hope you recover swiftly.

Can I ask did your nurse suggest flaxseed/Linseed to help reduce hot flushes?

One thing  I do know is that the seeds should be ground in a coffee grinder or spice grinder before eating as the shells are so hard they are difficult to digest.

Wishing you well and keep us updated.

K.

[Rosy]

Hi Ckld
I didn't realise they were the same thing! I buy a milled linseed with cranberry and blueberry and Linwood milled flaxseed with Brazil nuts, walnuts & co-enzyme 110. They are both lovely sprinkled on my cereal and salads.

[Rosy]

Hi Kathleen
Since coming off HRT so quickly my hot sweats are quite intense, more than I remember before so I have been reading alsorts on how to make them bearable. That's why I have been trying the linseed/flaxseed and they did help reduce the amount I had in a day although I was excercising regularly then too and eating a healthy diet. Since my diagnosis I seem to have gone to pot, put on weight eating everything I shouldn't and at the moment I cannot take out the dog as she pulls on the lead or do my great Maxiine Jones and Lorraine dvds. We are hopefully going on holiday in about 5 weeks if my results are good and I need to get rid of this bulk. It's so hard when I can't do much and I have lost my willpower.

[Tempest]

Hi, Rosy. I'm so sorry to hear of your diagnosis. I can say that if you scan the breast cancer forums, ladies who use aromatase inhibitors often have good luck with Venlafaxine or possibly Gabapentin for hot flush relief. Neither are of course estrogenic, so would be safe for you. I hope this helps! xxxx

[CLKD]

Rosy that sounds tasty ........ where from?  I like a bit of a change on my muesli.

How has today been?