Arimidex. They’re kidding, right?My surgeon prescribed Arimidex increase

 I’m 62 and was diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer in late March this year. I feel incredibly lucky not to have received this diagnosis as a young woman, as do many of you are. I also feel lucky that it was detected early and 2 breast preserving operations and 20 sessions of radiotherapy later, I was feeling relatively normal again. I’d been on HRT for 12 years (12 good years I don’t regret for one second), but as my cancer was hormone receptor positive I had to stop. I was really worried about hot flushes but Effexor really helped to reduce the frequency and intensity. I think the anti-depressant aspect had a positive effect on me too. I was really feeling quite chipper. My surgeon prescribed me Arimidex and said if I take it for 5 years, my long term survival prospects are better. I set myself a start date of 1 September and steeled myself for a resumption of debilitating hot flushes. Four weeks in, there was some but not a huge increase and I was thinking “Ok. This isn’t too bad. I can do this”. Then the arthralgia kicked in. I already suffer from arthritis in my right hip and knee, but a long acting anti-inflammatory I take had managed that perfectly well. Now, the pain is constant and keeps me awake half the night. It’s spread to other joints, including my right thumb which is “locked” every morning when I first get up. I read a couple of discussions on BCNA and started taking Panadol Osteo. Nothing. I feel almost crippled. Everything hurts when I get up from sitting or get out of the car after driving anywhere. I hobble like someone aged 92, not 62. I’m so fatigued I can barely gather the energy to drive the car and the most awful gloom has settled over me. I don’t see my surgeon until December, and being the sole practitioner of a small law firm, I have to work Monday to Friday and I have to be on the ball. I stopped taking the Arimidex 5 weeks in (last Saturday) and yesterday I started to feel well again and last night was my first pain-free sleep for about a week. I’m stressed about this because I want to do what I can to survive this psycho disease, but I really can’t live the next 5 years of my life like I lived the last week on Arimidex. If anyone has any tips or recommendations, remedies, drugs, anything that worked for them so that they could function on Arimidex, I’d be so grateful to hear from them. Alternatively, any good news stories about survivors who didn’t take Arimidex would certainly help me to feel hopeful. I’m pretty much the worst worrier I know, so anything positive would be a huge benefit to me. Thanks for listening. Claire