I went in to see The Vixen last Monday to follow up on a blood clot that developed behind my left knee.
The week before I was in the ER as I'd had calf pain for a week and 36 hours of a swollen ankle. The ultrasound showed a blood clot! Which is really dangerous. I called The Vixen from the gurney and she said to stop the Tamoxifen immediately. In the ER they gave me an injection in the belly, an anti-coagulant. I thought -- that's weird, and gross! The next day I went to see my primary care doctor and when she told me that the treatment to avoid another clot was to take Lovenox. You inject yourself in the belly twice a day, for 3 months. And the timing has to be very specific, every 12 hours. When I met with the nurse and I saw the kit (including a tiny red box where you put the spent needles), I burst into tears. I thought -- I can manage this, but what does it mean for the cancer treatment? Is this the corner I do not want to turn?
The Vixen is pretty confident that the blood clot was caused by prolonged use of Tamoxifen. But I got scanned on Friday just to make sure that the cancer is not acting up. Neither of my providers works on Fridays so I'm waiting for the phone call now. They will call today. I am also pretty confident that if there had been a problem on the scans, that I would have been contacted already.
If all is clear, I am basically off cancer treatment! Maybe she'll continue the quarterly injection of Lupron for a while longer, but I'm 53 next week and would likely be in natural menopause by now.
It's funny -- over the last few months I have been sensing and saying that I want to get off Tamoxifen. So intuitively I knew that it was time to quit. I wish I had followed that sense -- and avoided the blood clot and now this crazy treatment.
Fingers crossed!
