My aim here is not to cause concern but to sound a little warning.  If
you're a bit of a hypocondriac (as I am) and currently on Tamoxifen, you may
not want to continue reading this ....

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A few weeks ago I flew to Spain for a holiday.  Since I was flying from the
UK the flight itself was barely two hours but we took trains both ends which
meant that in total I was sitting down for about six hours.

A couple of days after arriving in Spain and after suffering some pretty
horrendous cramps, my right calf muscle seemed to seize up, it was as if it
was made of iron and I found myself hobbling around for about three days.

A few days later I developed a pain in my chest and upper back, it was very
sharp and would make me gasp when I moved suddenly.

Well, my leg pain eventually eased (but not before messing with my lower
back) and so did the chest pain, although I noticed that by breath was sort
of "catching", that I couldn't breathe as deeply as a thought I could or
that when my inhalation reached a certain point there was a sharp pain.

I mentioned both things and the fact that I seemed to be getting out of
breath much quicker than I ever had before at my oncology check up this
week.

To cut a long story short, tests were run and an ultrasound on my leg found
that I had some blood clots.  Diagnosis: deep vein thrombosis (dvt) and
possible pulmonary embolism (PE).

So, no more Tamoxifen for me.  I'm now on a blood thinner called Warfarin
for the next six months.  I'm lucky, no permanent damage has been done.

Both DVT and PE are frequently asymptomatic, although I must say I had
noticed the breathlessness for a few months prior to my holiday and I've
suffered from very bad leg cramps since starting Tamoxifen.

I thought I'd discuss this here as someone out there might be going through
something similar.  Tell your onc.  Both a cancer diagnosis and Tamoxifen
can be pre-disposing factors for DVT.

More info on DVT here: http://www.dvtsafetyzone.co.uk/Modulos/patients.aspx

All the best

María