Hi Bel, I am yet to start on tamoxifen and am not looking forward to it. I have hot flushes and hate them. I get them through the day and night. I have been having them since before chemo finished about Jan.
After lots of research and trial and error I have them under control through;
- regular (daily) exercise, i go for walks, and have recently started doing walk/sprints to try to control eight as well, i also swim 3 days a week
- I do not drink caffiene, apparently it increases hot flushes, it does for me, almost instantly
- stay away from hot and spicey foods, but because i love that type of thing i sometimes just put up with the effects
- stay away from most alcohol, especially red wine. I have had some wines that dont bring them on, i havent worked out what it is in the wine that does it, just easier to leave it alone or suffer the consequences
- my latest thing is to try to avoid preservatives, not sure if is that which sometimes gives me a kind of fuzzy face feeling. I dont know, i am just sick of side effects so try to eat unprocessed foods.
Even at work, i always get out for a walk at around lunch time. I just put myself first now and it helps to control any anxiety at work and keeps me moving keeping the flushes away.
So thats pretty much it. I am pretty good at avoiding them now and have just adjusted to all the above. I used to lapse quiet a bit but i will do anything to avoid them now.
I also take swisse sleep every night which relaxes me and i drift off to sleep. If i dont sleep i cant function.
I hope something there might help, cheers Louie