Has anyone not gone thru radiation and hormone blockers?

I had 100 ER with a lump LCIS 5.5 years ago. After surgery I chose not to take tamoxifen as the results were abnormal but not cancer. 4.5 years later, same breast, I had a .07 cm HER+ ER+ 91% and PR+ 1%., stage 1A tumor with no node involvement. I had Surgery, chemo and Herceptin, then partial radiation for 5 days. After that I had a triple dose of herceptin every three weeks for the rest of the year. I began anastrozole and had a rough time on it and began having irregular heartbeats. I tried exemestane and felt like I was on prednisone...buzzing all the time, then letrozole and my GP stopped me from taking any AI's until I could flush out some of the other chemicals. Now I take anastrozole and am doing pretty well 3 months later. I am 73 with osteoporosis, so am required to take fosamax. I look forward to getting finished with the AI...4 yr and 5 mo to go! It interrupts my sleep. The good thing about Fosamax is that you can stop it at any time. The shots must be continued for life.
I have had three good ultrasounds( every 6 mo) since the surgery in Nov 23. I believe knowing what I know now, I would have taken the Tamoxifen. I am having some calcifications in my vessels due to the radiation. Best of luck to everyone!

I have zometa infusion every month for my bone mets, also on verzenio, exemestane and lupron because I am 40 and have not gone through natural menopause.

I am waiting for results to advise if I need radiation or chemo. I don't want either. Mine is estrogen fed and I just asked if there was any other way to get the estrogen level down besides meds and they said no. I'm reading Outsmart Your Cancer and am getting so many other ways to try to stop it, the hardest part is which method to try. Which is sustainable, and how many do I do at once? I wish you well. The side effects are the main part I'm concerned about with traditional medicine. I want to protect my heart the most. I had 2 tumors removed. Lobular and Ductal. Nodes were clear in a dye test.

Mine was ductal. I had 3 symphonies removed that were negative. The tumor was tested and was a 17, which they said was very low, about a 2% recurrence rate. I did a lot of research and learned 1. Get your immune system up. 2. Exercise. 3. Eat clean; as close as you can get from farm to table. A lot of berries and leafy greens. I'm not getting radiation or taking hormone blockers. I don't think the benefits out weigh the side effects.

How long have you been on Verzenio? What dosage and what are the side effects?
I am taking Verzenio only at 50mg. Now they are recommending that I increase the dosage since the data is based on the 150mg study. Terrify of increasing the dosage...

Do you have any side effects? I just had my first infusion and on day 4, I had exhaustion and bad bone pain. I’m wondering how long it lasts and is this usually only on the first infusion.

I finished radiation in May and request my heart and lungs have the best protection, so they did my radiation in the prone position. If your facility can’t do it that way, request they send you to a place that can.

Hi there - I'm in my ninth month of taking Verzenio at 150mg. My liver enzymes shot up after the first few weeks so I took a break of a couple of weeks. Since then my blood labs have been fine. I'm more tired than I used to be (not the true fatigue that I had during radiation, but I definitely like my bedtime). I'm not sure if that's the Verzenio or the Anastrozole I'm taking. The "shitty" side effect (pun intended) is the diarrhea. The diarrhea itself is managable with loperamide (Imodium) when it comes on. But it's the urgency that has been a challenge. I don't really notice it too much when I work from home three days per week because when you've gotta go, you just go. In the office is a little more noticeable, but it's still quick, easy access to a bathroom. But I've had more than one experience of having to leave both in in-person or Zoom work meeting because I suddenly had to use the bathroom. But the worst is being out and about. I'm always on the lookout to know where the next bathroom is, just in case. I 've had a couple of times when driving somewhere and I've come sooooo super close to losing it right there in the car. Like REALLY close. Having said this, I usually don't have diarrhea two days in a row (I probably average 3 days per week). So on the 2nd day (after taking Imodium the day prior) I'm usually okay and don't worry about it. If it gets to be the 3rd or 4th day, I know to be cautious and maybe even take Imodium pre-emptively. BUT - with all this Imodium-taking, it's super duper important to pay attention to constipation, as well. I had one particularly terrible bout of constipation that almost sent me to the dr. so I've got sort of a routine with balancing my diarrhea, Imodium, and Miralax. I'm been trying to gut it out at 150mg - but with all if this diarrhea, my oncologist and I are experimenting and I'm going to try one-day per week of skipping a dose and see how that impacts the subsequent days. But overall, I'd say it hasn't been super terrible. It certainly stinks, but it hasn't been the worst thing to deal with (although I might have it a little easier than most as I work from home 3 days per week and have a very understanding boss and co-workers - which really helps). I just keep counting the months until I'm done. It doesn't rule my life, but certainly impacts it. But overall, I actually feel better since my diagnosis - quit drinking, started eating better and exercising. The diarrhea impacts my life but doesn't ruin my life. And since I know it's only for the next 15 months, I figure I can deal with it. My advice: just plan ahead when increasing the dose. Keep Imodium in your purse. Tell your friend or spouse that when they are driving and you say you need to pull over to use the bathroom, it means NOW. Keep reading bulletin boards to hear how others are dealing with the diarrhea and see if any of their tricks (taking the dose at a particular time of day; taking Imodium preventively; eating certain foods) works for you (I haven't found my magic bullet yet, but if I do - I will certainly post about it). Hang in there. You can do it!

Good for you! My facility did not do prone, although they said they would do it for me. But whatever your treatment, you always want experts who have done this many times. I said no thanks, and was on my back in an uncomfortable position.

I went through radiation before my surgery and have been on hormone blockers for the last few years. I take Exemestane and will hopefully be done with them soon. I also tried Anastrozole. This one seems to work best.