....it was not that long back, it was being reported that taking Tamoxifen before you get cancer, that some women might be better protected.....
Now it seems there is concern for women who stop taking Tamoxifen post cancer diagnosis......
My wife is one of the 13,000 women each year who take the drug... because reportedly it will save her life, like the 12,999 other women.... problem is, I wonder if she will be one of the 400 ?
In July.......there was my wife, a 15 month [as I wrote then] cancer survivor, sat at the computer looking up all the symptoms of why she feels crap [but she has survived cancer you think,..... oh, not that easy I'm afraid ] ............
look she said..... I have all these symptoms that make me feel crap, all known side effects of taking Tamoxifen.....
so why don't you speak to your doctor, or your Oncologist or your cancer nurse.... tell them.... I react....
she said....why ?...... they won't do anything....
oh so you are happy to turn to Dr Google, but not those who are treating you..... what am I supposed to do ? I am just a ridiculous person........ she looked at me.....
I didn't know what else to say........
And there she was last weekend, a 16 month [as I write now] cancer survivor, sat at the computer looking up all the symptoms of why she feels crap [but she has survived cancer you think,..... oh, not that easy I'm afraid ] ............
.....the same conversation..... look she said, I have all these symptoms that make me feel crap, all known side effects of taking Tamoxifen.....
so why don't you speak to your doctor, or your Oncologist or your cancer nurse.... tell them.... I react....
she said....why ?...... they won't do anything.... this time I said less...
I didn't know what else to say........ And so out comes today's latest report on Tamoxifen....
Reading the latest commentary as per the Guardian news article, on the one hand it suggests that the women who elect to stop taking the drug are either A) Wrong to do so....... or....... B) Wasting the NHS money [therefore the tax payers money] by doing so.
What did piss me off about this article, was the following comment:
This study is a timely reminder that it's so important that women are given support to continue taking their tamoxifen so that they have the best possible chance to outlive breast cancer.
How about giving them support to cope with the actual side effects perhaps ?
So I might like to suggest another option why women stop taking it......... Option C) Perhaps because Tamoxifen is making them feel ill and with terrible aches and pains, and absent any pain from Cancer, by not taking Tamoxifen the pain stops. My wife is a recently turned 50 year old woman, who was seemingly fit and healthy prior to her diagnosis last year.
Never smoked, ate [eats] the "right" foods, drinks in moderation, not even remotely overweight and perhaps the only major stress in her life is her ridiculous husband...... but now after taking Tamoxifen for the past year....when she first stands up after a period of immobility, hobbles around like an 80 year old woman. Now of course it's not the cancer that makes her hobble.... it's Tamoxifen.
What the article did not say is how many of the 13,000 women stop taking it. It suggests that 400 lives could be saved but 400 out of how many who stop taking the drug ? I would guess that it is more than 400 who stop taking the drug..... a lot more.
Statistics in Cancer are a funny beast. Remembering I am not the one who is ill, I am just the ridiculous husband, as a Cancer Husband your right to enquire is stymied by the apparent mis-representations that your enquiries can have, but one enquiry I did have, was post surgery what was the prognosis ?
So leaving aside all the possible mis-representations of my enquiry, here was the statistic....
Doctor: [words from gob] : Well Mr Ridiculous Husband, women with the same profile and outlook as your wife's diagnosis and treatment have very good odds. After 5 years of first treatment, 96 women out of a 100 will survive. That's good isn't it ? Very positive indeed.
Ridiculous Husband: [words in head, as gob felt no need to do anything].... so that means 100 women with the same profile as my wife will have been given this same rosey happy outlook, but 5 years later, 4 of them will have died..... Those 4 women were told that their chances are very good [because they had the same profile as my wife]..... but actually they died within the 5 years..... not that good a odds when you think about it...... because, they do not know precisely which of the 4 women out of the 100 women will die.....so they were all given the same statistic......
Chemotherapy, radiotherapy, tamoxifen..... non of them are guaranteed to stop cancer coming back, but you daren't not take them.....what if you don't take the treatment and the cancer comes ? what then..... but take them and for sure they will make you feel shit..... but this the rub.....take them, any of them.....and the cancer can still come back.
It comes back to sucking lemons..... sitting there listening to yet another Doctor explaining just what little is actually known about cancer...... with Cancer there are no good choices, there are just better or worse choices..... Tamoxifen is one of those better or worse choices......
Here is the NHS web site stated known side effects of taking Tamoxifen.
Very common: More than 1 in 10 people who take Tamoxifen citrate
1 in 100 = 130 of those women
1 in 1000 = 13 of those women
Maybe that explains why so many stop taking it...... how selfish.... thfra !
But the reality is, women are simply told....take this..... take this.... this will save your life......
Now it seems there is concern for women who stop taking Tamoxifen post cancer diagnosis......
My wife is one of the 13,000 women each year who take the drug... because reportedly it will save her life, like the 12,999 other women.... problem is, I wonder if she will be one of the 400 ?
In July.......there was my wife, a 15 month [as I wrote then] cancer survivor, sat at the computer looking up all the symptoms of why she feels crap [but she has survived cancer you think,..... oh, not that easy I'm afraid ] ............
look she said..... I have all these symptoms that make me feel crap, all known side effects of taking Tamoxifen.....
so why don't you speak to your doctor, or your Oncologist or your cancer nurse.... tell them.... I react....
she said....why ?...... they won't do anything....
oh so you are happy to turn to Dr Google, but not those who are treating you..... what am I supposed to do ? I am just a ridiculous person........ she looked at me.....
I didn't know what else to say........
And there she was last weekend, a 16 month [as I write now] cancer survivor, sat at the computer looking up all the symptoms of why she feels crap [but she has survived cancer you think,..... oh, not that easy I'm afraid ] ............
.....the same conversation..... look she said, I have all these symptoms that make me feel crap, all known side effects of taking Tamoxifen.....
so why don't you speak to your doctor, or your Oncologist or your cancer nurse.... tell them.... I react....
she said....why ?...... they won't do anything.... this time I said less...
I didn't know what else to say........ And so out comes today's latest report on Tamoxifen....
Reading the latest commentary as per the Guardian news article, on the one hand it suggests that the women who elect to stop taking the drug are either A) Wrong to do so....... or....... B) Wasting the NHS money [therefore the tax payers money] by doing so.
What did piss me off about this article, was the following comment:
This study is a timely reminder that it's so important that women are given support to continue taking their tamoxifen so that they have the best possible chance to outlive breast cancer.
How about giving them support to cope with the actual side effects perhaps ?
So I might like to suggest another option why women stop taking it......... Option C) Perhaps because Tamoxifen is making them feel ill and with terrible aches and pains, and absent any pain from Cancer, by not taking Tamoxifen the pain stops. My wife is a recently turned 50 year old woman, who was seemingly fit and healthy prior to her diagnosis last year.
Never smoked, ate [eats] the "right" foods, drinks in moderation, not even remotely overweight and perhaps the only major stress in her life is her ridiculous husband...... but now after taking Tamoxifen for the past year....when she first stands up after a period of immobility, hobbles around like an 80 year old woman. Now of course it's not the cancer that makes her hobble.... it's Tamoxifen.
What the article did not say is how many of the 13,000 women stop taking it. It suggests that 400 lives could be saved but 400 out of how many who stop taking the drug ? I would guess that it is more than 400 who stop taking the drug..... a lot more.
Statistics in Cancer are a funny beast. Remembering I am not the one who is ill, I am just the ridiculous husband, as a Cancer Husband your right to enquire is stymied by the apparent mis-representations that your enquiries can have, but one enquiry I did have, was post surgery what was the prognosis ?
So leaving aside all the possible mis-representations of my enquiry, here was the statistic....
Doctor: [words from gob] : Well Mr Ridiculous Husband, women with the same profile and outlook as your wife's diagnosis and treatment have very good odds. After 5 years of first treatment, 96 women out of a 100 will survive. That's good isn't it ? Very positive indeed.
Ridiculous Husband: [words in head, as gob felt no need to do anything].... so that means 100 women with the same profile as my wife will have been given this same rosey happy outlook, but 5 years later, 4 of them will have died..... Those 4 women were told that their chances are very good [because they had the same profile as my wife]..... but actually they died within the 5 years..... not that good a odds when you think about it...... because, they do not know precisely which of the 4 women out of the 100 women will die.....so they were all given the same statistic......
Chemotherapy, radiotherapy, tamoxifen..... non of them are guaranteed to stop cancer coming back, but you daren't not take them.....what if you don't take the treatment and the cancer comes ? what then..... but take them and for sure they will make you feel shit..... but this the rub.....take them, any of them.....and the cancer can still come back.
It comes back to sucking lemons..... sitting there listening to yet another Doctor explaining just what little is actually known about cancer...... with Cancer there are no good choices, there are just better or worse choices..... Tamoxifen is one of those better or worse choices......
Here is the NHS web site stated known side effects of taking Tamoxifen.
Very common: More than 1 in 10 people who take Tamoxifen citrate
- hot flushes
- vaginal and vulval problems such as vaginal discharge, itching of the vulvae or vaginal bleeding - seek medical advice if you have abnormal vaginal bleeding, vaginal discharge, menstrual irregularities, pelvic pain or have a feeling of pressure in the pelvis
- bone or tumourpain
- eye or eyesight problems
- feeling light-headed
- fluid retention
- hair loss
- headaches
- high levels of cholesterol or other lipids in the blood which may lead to pancreatitis
- leg cramps
- nausea
- thromboembolism of the veins – seek immediate medical advice if you have a painful and swollen leg or develop breathing difficulties or sudden chest pain
- metabolic problems
- vomiting
- abnormal laboratory test results
- angioedema
- blood problems
- hypersensitivity reactions
- liver problems
- skin rash or rashes
- bone marrow problems
- erythema multiforme
- lung problems
- skin problems
- Stevens-Johnson syndrome
- blindness
- endometriosis
- secondary primary tumours
1 in 100 = 130 of those women
1 in 1000 = 13 of those women
Maybe that explains why so many stop taking it...... how selfish.... thfra !
But the reality is, women are simply told....take this..... take this.... this will save your life......
And so it's official ........
Cancer is shit....
not that the cancer will kill you though......
not that the cancer will kill you though......
How do you find a song of the day for that I wonder ?
I bet Bowie could come up with a cure for cancer.....
he's been compared to God, but I think that's unfair.....
god could no way produce some of the fantastic music that
bowie has....
