more about people quitting tamoxifen......

I enjoy the newsletter I get from 
 About.com: breast cancer . 

The one that arrived today has More about people quitting tamoxifen and the like....

Maybe I am just lucky and haven't had bad side effects, although I think I have had shitty side-effects, but I am so adamant that I do not want the cancer to return so will do what it takes.

The main focus of the article, but not the comments on it, is about co-payments being so expensive. I have to be honest that I am not aware of what I pay for it every month, if anything. Whatever it is, it does not have an impact, unlike my lymph treatment for borderline lymphedema, the cost of which I am super-aware of.

Anyway, these are the comments I posted below the article:

"I am on tamoxifen. Think it’s been nearly 18 months now and I wouldn’t dream of discontinuing it. The truth is that I have no idea if I have a co-payment on it (I live in South Africa and our medical aid, what you call health insurance, is clearly different) but no matter what it cost, would beg, borrow or steal to get it.
Yes I have had side-effects but am tolerating them. I am having 6 monthly checkups – which hurt like hell – to see if I have endometrial cancer (although the oncologist disagreed with the gynaecologist and said only yearly checks were sufficient); went to a dietician and have lost 4kg of the 6kg I gained despite not eating more; and tolerate the hot flushes – a residue of thyroid problems in the past is that my temperature is wonky and I am often freezing or boiling, but I tend to deal with it by wearing cooler clothes than the weather dictates and carrying a soft wrap in my handbag for when I am cold.
I am grateful that there is something that can help in preventing the cancer from returning. I just hope and pray that it works. (I also had radiotherapy as a preventative treatment plus 17 treatments of Herceptin.)"

appears most women decline to take tamoxifen

Interesting. Reading this article from the latest New York Times which says despite the fact that women at risk of returning breast cancer could benefit from taking tamoxifen (not all benefit, cancer has to be hormone receptive), most of them decline to take it cos of the side-effects.
read article