Hello again friends!!! Sorry I haven’t updated you in some time. This semester in school has been a lot. I also started a new job, which is a lot. But I have a few minutes and wanted to share some more of my journey with you.

I started my Tamoxifen 2 weeks after radiation was over. I, of course, researched all the side effects of Tamoxifen so that I would know what to look for and expect. I was set for the worst and was hoping for the best. In preparation for hot flashes, I purchased a watch-like thing to help regulate my body temperature. I was ready to start this, hopefully, last step in this journey. I had been on it for a month when I visited all my doctors. First up was my breast specialist. After the first of the year, I will get on an every 6 month schedule for mammograms. I have no idea how they will see anything in my left breast because it has to be all scar tissue. But they have their tricks, I guess. She and I discussed losing some weight because fat cells hold estrogen. I would love to lose weight, but we all know it is difficult. Also, we talked about Metformin. A doctor I know told me that there was some research out there that stabilizing insulin levels helps reduce cancer recurrence because the cancer cells won’t have glucose to feed off to grow. Made sense to me. My breast specialist said it also had weight loss benefits as well. So, I would talk to my primary care doctor about starting it. Next up was my radiation oncologist. We talked about how awful my skin was after radiation and that parts of my breast color were, we’ll say, ‘off.’ After our chat, he stated that he would not need to see me again unless there was a reoccurrence or something found in the other breast. And last for that week was my oncology NP. We discussed if I had any issues with Tamoxifen, which I had no side effects. That is a blessing in itself. We also talked about Metformin. She told me she had tried it for weight loss and couldn’t handle the side effects. But everything else was good to go. We devised a plan because my breast specialist needed to see me every 6 months; oncology would see me between those visits, so I would see either oncology or my breast specialist every 3 months. So, after that round-robin, I scheduled an appointment with my PCP. She was open to the discussion of Metformin but was hesitant to prescribe it because my blood sugars were historically excellent. She didn’t want to drop my blood sugar too low in the name of weight loss. I respect that. After we discussed alternatives, we decided to give Metformin a trial run. If I had symptoms of low blood sugar or other side effects after a month, I would stop taking it. As I write this, I have been on it for a week. So far, so good. We will see what the rest of the month brings. As always, thanks for being on this journey with me 🙂