A nice lady named Joyce contacted me a couple of weeks ago. She had bought my book Why Dogs Can’t Eat Chocolate: How Medicines Work and How YOU Can Take Them Safely and it had given her the courage to ask some tough questions about the medicine she was taking for prevention of breast cancer.
A few years ago Joyce’s mammogram showed a lump that proved to be cancerous, and she underwent a lumpectomy, followed by 35 radiation treatments over the next 7 months.
After completing the surgery and radiation for her breast cancer, her oncologist started her on a medicine called anastrozole, the generic version of Arimidex® to help prevent a recurrence of her breast cancer. They planned for her to take it for 5 years and she had been taking it for almost 2 and half years with no problems.
“I had been doing just fine, until this spring. I thought my allergies were acting up. I’d sometimes see little red dots on the inside of my arms, which eventually faded away. Then something changed. The tips of my ears started to tingle, feel hot, and turn a fiery red color. But I could make that go away by taking an antihistamine, so I continued to think it must be just a bad year for my allergies.”
“By the first of August the rash had spread from my ear tips to my neck, though I still got relief by taking my antihistamine. And when the rash spread to my thighs I was one week away from leaving on a wonderful trip to Scotland and I began to worry. What if the rash continued to spread? I didn’t want to cancel my special trip but I surely didn’t want to be miserable on it either.”
“I was reading your book Why Dogs Can’t Eat Chocolate and got to the part where you encouraged us to Be A Squeaky Wheel and to SPEAK UP, not give up. I wondered, “Could my rash be related to my breast cancer medicine? I’ve taken it without any problems for over 2 years.”
As I listened to Joyce, with her on schedule to leave for Scotland in only 5 days, I advised her to go ahead and stop the medicine but also to call her doctor immediately and explain her situation. Her rash was getting worse, and yes, her Arimidex® could be the reason. If it was caused by the medicine she needed to stop taking it.
“Joyce, please call your doctor and make an appointment as soon as possible to discuss what has been happening, so she can advise you on what other options you have. She needs to know that you are having these symptoms, so she can help you. You did the right thing by speaking up.”
I heard back from Joyce a couple of weeks ago, after she returned from her trip. “The rash went away the day I stopped that medicine and has never come back. I had a wonderful time on my trip, and I didn’t need to take any antihistamines,” she wrote. “I saw my doctor the week after I got back and she told me I had done the right thing to stop the medicine. We discussed it and she started me on a different medicine that’s for the same thing, and I have had no problems taking it so far. Hopefully I can complete my last two and a half years of treatment with this new one”.
“I really appreciate you and your Why Dogs book because it gave me the courage to speak up about my symptoms instead of just putting up with them. You gave me the encouragement I needed to go talk to my doctor about my problem and ask for something else. Thank you.”
“By the way, I was interested in your article on skin treatment to prevent radiation burns and thought you might want to pass on this tip to your readers that I got from my radiologist in Seattle. He recommended I buy the purest aloe Vera juice I could find and to apply it to the skin area after each radiation treatment (never before, just after). I looked around and found some pure aloe juice at Trader Joe’s. I used it after every treatment and never had any discomfort after any of my treatments.”
