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Monday, November, 23, 2009
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Hi Nan.  It looks like I caught this thread too late but I'll send this out and see what happens.  I will be 41 this month and I just had a bilateral mastectomy two weeks ago.  I will do four rounds of Adriamycin and Cytoxin starting in Jan. '09 then will have four rounds of Taxol.  My ILC is ER+, PR+ and HER2-.  The oncologist plans to start me on Tamoxifen after I finish chemo.  I have several concerns about both the chemo and the tamoxifen treatments.  First of all, I am in the first good relationship I have ever had.  I have never been married and he and I have been together for not quite two years.  Neither of us has children.  I was hoping to start a family late but was warned by some cancer buddies that I will go through menopause due to the chemo.  I hope this is not as absolute as they seem to think.  Also, I have had horrible insomnia for about twenty years.  I do everything I am supposed to in order to sleep well (except exercise regularly - I am too tired!) including using lavender products at bedtime, but it has been years since I have slept through the night.  In the years just prior to my diagnosis my sleep went from about 6 hours per night down to about 2.  I am convinced the insomnia has contributed to my poor health.  I just started Lunesta last month and it works for me!  It is the only thing that has.  Even with that I am up about an hour each night but at least I fall back to sleep.  I am glad to see your message here and the answers from everyone.  It gives me some hope that maybe I can try another drug to deal with the estrogen if I need to, or can perhaps try a different sleep med if there are problems later with the Lunesta.  I am not that much older than you are.  My periods have been light for years but I have them like clockwork.  Maybe with any luck I will still have them after the chemo.  I suppose the estrogen blockers will do me in on that front but I am holding out some hope anyway.  It may sound silly, but I am already mourning my sex life.  My mastectomy scars are like something out of a horror movie, I am much smaller now and I expect I can say goodbye to my libido too.  Oh well.  I plan to exercise as much as possible as soon as I have healed a little more.  My guy exercises religiously and I have a background in dance.  Now that I have had some rest I think I can get back on track with that.  I am really hoping so.  Something like a 'normal' life after treatments would be a big bonus.  I hope your meds are working out for you.  Good luck with everything!    - Nancy   
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