 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
Medical Forum / Diseases and Disorders / Breast Cancer / February 2005Coming off Dixarit & Efexor
My wife was diagnosed with breast cancer 14 months ago, she had a lumpectomy and then radiation. She was taking tamoxifen for about 12 months and more recently she has been switched to Arimidex. She has also been taking venlafaxine(Efexor) and clonidine (Dixarit) to help suppress the terrible hot flushes. Also because she was getting hardly any sleep her GP perscribed Zopiclone. She is very keen to stop taking the venlafaxine & Clonidine, because of the side effects. She has tried stopping both at once and has suffered severe headaches, shiverings and dramatic temperature swings and generally feeling unwell. Her GP said just to stop taking them and the withdrawal symptoms would pass. Has anyone else had experience of coming off these drugs, what advice can you give. At the moment my wife has gone back to taking minimal doses of each, which seems to help a little. Many thanks Nick & Chrissie > My wife was diagnosed with breast cancer 14 months ago, she had a lumpectomy > and then radiation. She was taking tamoxifen for about 12 months and more [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > > Nick & Chrissie Both drugs - especially the Clonidine have warnings about withdrawing them abruptly. If your doctor is not able to give you a safe withdrawal schedule, I suggest you call the pharmacist and let him help you with a withdrawal schedule. Most of these type drugs should not be stopped abruptly without a gradual withdrawal. My best wishes, eveline Hi Nick I am very curious on how your wife is doing. At the age of 36, I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer (19 months ago), had a lumpectomy, chemo and radiation and then started taking tamoxifen in June, 2004. I too am suffering from the terrible hot flushes. I just found out about Effexor but my doctor thinks I should try Dixarit. Currently I am not taking either one and after reading this about your wife I am not sure I want to take anything. My doctors will not switch me to Arimidex because I was not postmenopausal prior to chemo. Aside from the hot flushes and not sleeping did she have any other side affects? Please let me know how she is doing. I will soon have to make a decision on if I want to take either one of these drugs to get rid of the hot flushes. I have contemplated even stopping the tamoxifen. Thanks I was first DX'd 17 years ago in 1988, and had a lumpectomy followed by radiotherapy and then was prescribed tamoxifen for several years - I was 34 at the time. I loathed it because of the hot flushes and night sweats it gave me, and stopped before the 5 years because I hated it so much. My doc described tamoxifen as belt and braces, and I felt that if that made my life almost intolerable, then I'd rather do without the braces and just rely on the belt!! Steph > Hi Nick > [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > even > stopping the tamoxifen. Thanks |
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2008 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.