What Is More Important, Your Quality Of Life or Keeping Cancer At Bay?

Both.

Medical treatment is the only thing that can save cancer patients. Encouraging people to resign themselves to death to prevent living with pain is not the right thing to do. I do agree though that cancer patients need to make that decision, even if it is not in their best interests.

Dear Yadda Yadda, only you can decide whether to do it or not. I don't know what I would do if told I had to have by-pass surgery again. It would be a real hard decision for me-- let me just die, or have a surgery that weakens me for 3 years? I just don't know...

What ever you decide, I will back you 100%. And that's a fact. You must do what is best for you, and no one else!

All my love--

(((YaddaYadda)))

You must do what is right for you.

I am sorry to hear what you are going through at this time....and I hope that your doctor can give you some options that allow you to live instead of exist.

I will send positive thoughts your way!

Those choices suck, don't they? I'm sorry your having so much trouble with your AI.

I've been on Arimidex for two years and have experienced some side effects but nothing really debilitating. I feel very fortunate.

Most of the things I was experiencing before I even started taking the medication, simply from aging, I think - some occasional deep aches, some occasional joint pain, a little arthritis in my right hand (from an old injury, actually), hot flashes, some knee problems that always seem to clear up, occasional leg cramps at night. So, I'm not sure what's from the Arimidex and what's just from age (early 60s). The night cramping in the legs and in the feet seems to have increased with the Ameridex, and I now get some occasional cramping in my hands - but all that stays away if I keep up on my calcium and magnesium and stay well hydrated. Bone loss was something my doc and I were dealing with anyway, so I already had something prescribed for that prior to starting the Arimidex.

I just went through some real problems with my right knee and was in tears thinking it was caused by the Arimidex (and I was thinking: great choice- get cancer or be crippled), but my doc swears it was something to do with a temporary muscle problem and not the knee joint itself....I hope he's right (and it has improved greatly with some exercises).

I hope your doc can come up with some suggestions for you. But, in the long run, we all have to measure what is most important to us and make our own decisions.

I post out of respect for the difficulty of your decision. I do not have a direct correlation of one drug, one side effect and one decision point. But I have experienced the pain of medication side effects. For me it was statins. The pain was unbearable, but the refrain of "suck it up Nancy it's for your own good", was as loud as any chorus. Not one of them is able to tell me that the statins damaged my muscles, but they are willing to prescribe more drugs, with more side effects. My quality of life has suffered ever since, I became compliant with the orders. If I had to choose between the two I'd say "Quality of Life". There seems to be more dignity, than listening to people who have no idea what it's like. All they know is the damn statistics. Good luck in your difficult decision and I commend you for letting others know there is a choice in this issue.

I think it's both, but I'd be more concerned about how I spent the time in my life while at the same time battling the cancer.

All of you that have responded are so brave, thank you for your strenght. My family will be dealing with this issue soon enough.

(((((yadda yadda)))))

I admire your choice and send you strength and healing energy. I would not ever take chemo no matter what or any of the other drugs for cancer.

I would move to a state where medical marijuana is legal and learn how to make the oil that many people are taking instead of chemo and other drugs. I want to post a link here to the first part of a 7 part video I hope you will watch all 7 parts so you will have more information:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjhT9282-Tw

Have been reading the replies here and have refrained from comment out of respect for the notion that -- in the specifics of this instance -- this question seemed posed to the Ladies amongst us.

At this point if you would allow a general observation, may I offer:

There is no expiration date stamped upon us. If there was I would not have made it out of WWII Germany, my 3rd Purple Heart, or several of the crush injuries from the coal mine. We tend to give Doctors the modern equivalent of demi-god.

Your priorities change with time and circumstance. As a young person with family responsibilities requiring my presence it would have been a fool's errand to get between me and the surgeon's table. Now that my sell by date is long past, there is a DNR in place.

Quality of life: Although I function AMA most of the time there are some things that we confuse quality of life with a minor sacrifice -- not drinking booze, consuming dairy products and or caffein, etc.

We are not ever alone. Although the final decision is ours alone it affects those with whom our lives are integrated. As such, may I recommend visiting with friends and family about your decision. They should know that it is not a debate, but rather a discussion. Put it all in written form as necessary in your State of residence. These steps will help remove uncertainty and the attendant angst; help remove the sense of isolation and the notion that you must endure this by yourself.

Bless,

Daniel D

This question was asked many years ago. They decided that a company/industry has a right to continue to pollute the earth with cancer causing chemicals in the name of profits. They decided it was easier to cure cancer than to make large changes to how we build/live/eat things.

As someone considering med school, this is a challenging topic. As your (future) doctor, damn right I would want you to live just like you did prior to getting sick. You are young, too young to die in my opinion. I am unsure of the regiment for your drug, if it something you are stuck with for the remainder of your life or not. But I do think a nice long talk with your doctor is a good place to start, if he/she does not listen, find another. There are plenty of good doctors and cancer clinics to get better information and care. Find some support groups, they are a great help (I have a child with special needs) and a good place to ask questions.

In the mean time, grin and bear it. Get your hubby/SO to install a beer keg tap (no twisting needed).

Yaddayada, I really feel for the difficulty of your decision.

I read your post earlier this PM and couldn't get it out of my mind.

I'm not entirely sure of your diagnosis, but, perhaps I can give you a further perspecive. I should preface this by saying my husband died of lung cancer in 2002, my father with glioblastoma in 2004, and I am a bit jaded by the medical profession of today.

However, my gr-grandfather was a family doctor, his dau marrried heart specialist and his son was a doctor who started medical insurance in CT. I'm not unfamiliar.

To the point, my mother at age 84 was diagnosed with in situ, non-aggresive, her2 receptor cancer last yr. She had a lumpectomy &, insitu radiation for 5 days. FINE

Then came the recommendations for femera, from the surgeon, the radiologist, and the onocologist. All with Columbia-Presbyterian (darn can't spell). This is "pro-forma"/"sop".

Sister & I started doing reseach; cause MOM thinks DR's are god. See above.

POINT: Statistic show (provided by onocologist via national database that only use statistic to age 70 , high as they go) w/o doing anything further her treatment (surgery/radiation) that she had a 70% chance of dying from other causes, not the recurrance, w/o Femera. With Femera it was reduced by a whole 3%; she'd already outlived the stats !!!

But, my sister's and my concern were exactly what has happen to you, lifestyle. My Mom has all her faculties. She drives,(and I ride, on occasion), maintains her home, pool, goes to meetings, lunch, etc.

She didn't need joint pain, but the protocol demands!!

Hope this makes some sense. This is a very emotional issue/and you. My heart goes out

Yaddayadda,

I'm so very sorry to learn that you're having these health problems.

You are the only one who can decide what is best for you. You are the expert on you.

Never having shared this particular problem, I'm not sure what I'd do. I'd need to decide at the time.

What I do know is that I wish you the very best.

Yadda - I'm where you are at in treatment anyway. I took Arimidex, then Femora, now Tamoxifen. I've been struggling with trying to take these medications for almost two years now. I really don't know if I can or will go another three years.

It IS a very tough decision to make. On one hand the oncologist says I'll have a higher rate of getting cancer if I stop taking the med. On the other hand I don't have a life now anyway.

So I think I'll quit taking it after my August appt. and blood tests.

We all have to do what is best for ourselves I suppose. I hope you begin to feel better after you stop taking it. Another thing is that when I had radiation I lost a lot (most) of muscle tone and energy. I'm sure that is making this medication side effects worse.

Good luck to you Yadda!

You are my very own ray of sunshine

Does that mean I'm hot? lols

(((((Love you Dowser)))))

Great information here, YY. Thank you for sharing and I wish you strength in your battle ahead and in each decision along the way.

Yadda Yadda - So sorry. My wife had stage 3 breast cancer in 2003. She had mastectomy chemo, radiation and the dr. put her on Arimidex. She could only tolerate it for 3 mos. She had chest pains, nausea, bone pain and panic attacks. She tried a few others but had bad side effects with all. She went off of the drugs and started eating healthy and she believes in vitamin D supplements along with others. She is fine today. Her cancer is in remission. She has nueropathy from all the chemo but other than that, ok. I wish you all the best and so does she.

Hi, Yadda, and Everyone, caught your article and thought I would "chip in" with my story.

I was diagnosed last year with Breast Cancer when I was taken into hospital with a Pulmonary Embolism (Blood Clot). Although they dispersed the clot safely (it had reached my right lung), I was then, as I have said, diagnosed with breast cancer. This was brought on by HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy), and was caused from an excessive build-up of Oestrogen in my system.

A year into living with cancer, my blood has sorted itself out after a course of Clexane injections which, thankfully I no longer need. However, so far I have not been offered any surgery,chemo, or radiotherapy.

I am currently prescribed Aromasin 25mg, and Prednisolone 5mg.

My main reason for posting here is to say that over the past six months I have been experiencing a lot of those symptoms that you have described, lack of energy, joint and bone aches, and a general feeling of weakness and lethargy.

I am due to have a Isotropic Bone Scan early August, to see if the cancer has spread to my bones, or if it's just the start of arthitis.

Neither prospect is very appealing.

Thanks to you all for your good wishes and kind words. Yadda, I did have a CAT scan last year and my diagnosis seemed "terminal". They were talking about "palliative care" and "hospice visits", none of which has so far happened.

But at no time have I ever been offerered surgery or chemotherapy or anything else other than the drugs I am still currently taking.

As my treatment is courtesy of the British National health Service, none of this surprises me, as it's a known fact that for people in their sixties and older, they just do the minimum because of the cost factor.

It does not matter of course that most of us have paid our contributions all of our working lives!

Yadda good luck in your fight, I hope by now you have had that talk and found something that will work for you!

Well, last week I had the Isotopic Bone Scan, and now it's just a matter of waiting to hear the results.