I had the fortunate ability to be a secret shopper with my patient experience role while needing emergency department (ED) services on Tuesday. I had floaters in my vision and expressive aphasia with both switching words and not being able to find the word I wanted. While I would have told my husband or family/friend to get to the ED ASAP, I kept working my PT shift and then decided to call my oncologist. He advised that I go to the ED. A caring, compassionate, and timely intake and processing through the ED including a brain MRI later, I got the good news there was no signs of a stroke, brain metastases, or brain lesions.
Fast forward to the next day and I get a call from my oncologist to see if I wanted to come in for a follow up visit. I did and based on my horrific ongoing side effects (significant fatigue, brain fog, apathy, weight gain) from tamoxifen along with his hypothesis that tamoxifen may have played a role in what may have been an aural migraine, he recommended I stop tamoxifen for a month, we reassess, and then potentially go on an aromatase inhibitor. I will post on the exact mechanism of action and why this makes sense a different day.
This sounded great to me because me, the person who always does everything by the book, did not have tamoxifen in her pill box for one week and wondered why she felt amazing and was having everyone say I sounded like me again. My oncologist says that likely confirms his hypothesis but wanted to trial off of it for a month, which he said won’t hurt my recurrence rate.
Day one off tamoxifen: I felt like posting. I planned ahead. I took the stairs… every time. I helped so many coworkers with what they need and patients with what they need. One said, “You have no idea how much you've helped me. My husband died 2 weeks ago and my world has been inside-out since then. Nothing makes sense and I've been extremely at odds. Your call this morning is the first hint of hope.” after I returned a simple phone call asking for resources. I felt like me again.
Let’s hope this continues.
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