Meet Your Oncologist

There are many uncomfortable things in life one has to face, meeting an oncologist is one of them. An oncologist treats cancer, they know just about everything about the disease except what actually causes it. Meeting Dr. Halle was nerve racking yet comforting at the same time. The doctor began by telling me, that she was not going to recommend any chemo or radiation but would recommend a few other options. I had options? I was not sure to be excited or worried. One of the options was to get my female parts removed, go through radiation and take an experimental pill. Nope! The other was to get injections of a clinic trial medicine and go through radiation. Nope! I decided to go with tamoxifen, although I did not like what I read about it, I felt better knowing more about it when Dr. Halle explained it to me. I would take a pill a day, it would put my body in menopause(I was only 38 at the time), would give me leg cramps, loss of sex drive, make me bruise easily and lose weight. I figured the symptoms would pale in comparison to the benefits of taking the drug, fighting the cancer to never come back.

I will tell you that the side effects are not fun, but the fact that I can now fit into a size 6 jeans ROCKS! If only a company could market whatever in the pill that makes you lose weight, millions of woman would be buying it in case loads! The downside is the pill makes me sweat badly to the point where I had to get some heavy duty deodorant that I call 'Spackle'. Actually I use Secret Clinical or Dove Clinical. Both work, however, I don't like that it gets all over my clothes so washing becomes a challenge, lots of Spray-N-Wash! I also take Effexor for the which helps tremendously with the sweats and emotional anxiety which is normal to take when a person is diagnosed.

Now that I know what menopause is like, I sympathize with every woman who is going through it! I have my days when I am fatigued and my legs hurt. Unfortunately, because I live in Cleveland, Ohio we don't have sun all the time so I have to get my Vitamin D from other sources. I will tell you this, taking Leg Cramps with Quinine from GNC does help! So if you are taking tamoxifen, ask your doctor if you are able to take this, fortunately you only take it when the cramps happen.

Tomorrow: 'What's that sticking out?'