Fulvestrant/Faslodex Update

I have been meaning to post an update on how my latest treatment is going for quite a while now, but I just haven't been up to it. Today I can. This Tuesday marks three months on my latest treatment, fulvestrant/Faslodex. I'd like to say it's going well. In some ways, it is. But about two months ago, I began having episodes where I'd feel like I just couldn't breathe easily. I would get mild strangling sensations and the feeling of pressure on my chest. Later, I began having heart palpitations, as well. And then lightheadedness and feeling like my blood sugar has crashed and I'm about to pass out. And onto a full-blown anxiety/panic attack. 

After sharing my symptoms at my last oncology appointment, we did an EKG to rule out heart problems and decided to go ahead and have my scans done a month early. Thankfully, my scans showed no lung metastases causing my breathing difficulties, for which I am extremely thankful. They also revealed that my liver lesions are responding to this treatment and have decreased in size! It's a modest response, but that's more than I've had with my last several treatments. So I'll stay on this drug for another three months and we'll scan again.

But without another physical explanation, my symptoms seem to be side effects of the treatment. The treatment that's the first to have worked against my cancer in a year. The treatment that's the last one before we have to try chemo. 

So it looks like I'm going to have to figure out a way to live with these really difficult episodes. My doctor did prescribe a low dose of Ativan to add on to my regular anxiety meds, especially in the days leading up to my injection and the week following it. We'll see if that makes a difference since I'm getting my injection this week. Most of all, I covet all the prayers you can send up on my behalf. 

"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness'" (2 Cor. 12:9). "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Phil. 4:13). "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me" (Ps. 23:4).