I gained weight on anastrazole Stay on it five years went to weight watchers after the five years lost 13 pounds and glasses I stayed on it. Hair is coming back. Don’t give up.

I'm on my 3rd oncologist, who seems to care whether I live or die (unlike #1 in Illinois, who only saw me 2x in 7 months on Anastrozole). I was always pawned off on "the minions," which were a series of look-alike tall thin blonde P.A's girls with names like "Heather" who constantly told me on the patient portal (my only way of ever reaching my oncologist) that, "This is a question you should take up with the doctor at your next face-to-face meeting." (hahahaha), I was diagnosed 12/7/2021. I immediately began inquiring about an oncotype and he said, "You don't need one." (As it turns out, I DID need one, which I did not get for 17 months until I was in Texas. It was 29. I have been told that I would have had 3 bouts of chemo if I had been in Texas initially). The other drawback of not ordering an oncotype for the patient is that, without it, there is no indication of how aggressive the tumor might be, so the patient has no idea about the odds of its recurring. I go between Texas and the Midwest and now I have to drive 3 hours to be seen when I am in Illinois, to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, where the oncologist who has seen me 3 times there has never once examined me, physically. (He told me at appointment #2 that he was going to examine my mutilated right breast at visit #3, but he did not.) I am scheduled again, and my appointment on a Friday is literally giving me 15 minutes (4:45 p.m.). Thankfully, my Texas oncologist spent a very long time with me, gathering the names and hospitals of my previous treatment and vowed to get me an oncotype, but that didn't happen until I had asked (and asked and asked) for literally all of 2022 and it was the spring of 2023. He agreed that, after my cessation of taking Anastrozole (my left knee blew out and crippled me for 6 months, which I spent hobbling with a cane and in a wheelchair) for a full 9 months, that ship had sailed. I found out from my radiologist that my Illinois oncologist was well-known to be opposed to ordering any expensive test(s) for his patients, because he "doesn't want to get dinged by Medicare." So, if you are his patient, good luck to you! Three of my former students who grew up to work for me actually said, "He killed our mother" when they learned who my Illinois oncologist was. He refused to run a test (no doubt pricey) to determine if her breast cancer had spread. It had (to her pancreas) and, while they attempted to take her to the Mayo Clinic, he did everything he could to block their ability to transfer her, including saying, "I don't know why you want to go there, I interned there, I know everything they know." He also told her three daughters, "After I talk to you three, I need therapy." She ended up in hospice and died. He is no longer my doctor, needless to say, but his negligence in not taking into account that I had been in a study for osteoarthritis from 1997 to 2020 (the MOST study) and had a family history of bad joint pain, plus an injury to my left knee, semi-crippled me on September 15, 2022 and my left knee will never be the same (I have to brace it to walk any distance, and, when I was taking the pills (Anastrozole and Tamoxifen) I had the worst pain I've ever had in my life , and I've had 3 major surgeries and given birth twice. I attempted to learn how to tolerate the A.I, pills (Anastrozole) for 7 months, went off everything for 9 months after my knee blew out (no injury; just quit working and was excruciatingly painful, like a meniscus tear) I resumed taking Tamoxifen for 5 months on April 23, 2023, and discontinued it on Aug. 30, 2023 after extreme exhaustion and non-stop UTIs and that was "it" for me. I quit taking the pills because it was literally ruining my life. I did voluntarily submit to 33 radiation sessions, despite being told (by Iowa City) 3 days before I was scheduled to start, that they would not have radiated me because "you're a woman in your 70s." (78, to be precise), I am feeling so much better since I quit taking the toxic "adjuvant therapy" pills and I am hoping and praying that the radiation worked and that medicine will come up with a better test to monitor for those of us who cannot tolerate the A.I. pills and/or Tamoxifen. I just had a CT scan with contrast last Tuesday because my liver enzymes are elevated and it did not show anything "bad" but that is why I hope that some test (Signaterra?) can be used to help me stay on top of how I'm doing. My Texas oncologist, when I asked about mammograms every 6 months, said, "I'm not worried about it going to your breast. I'm worried about it going somewhere else." Since my father had colon cancer which traveled to his liver and killed him in 6 months' time, I am grateful that my Texas oncologist is being proactive in helping me monitor my situation, but, since my original presentation was 1A, 11 mm, no spread, good margins, but 95% estrogen positive, I was not "bad" enough to secure the doctor's order(s) to perhaps run the Signaterra test to track things---but perhaps it will change.