My second week on Piqray and Faslodex

General, Medical Updates 2 Minutes

Last Friday, my sugar spiked to 268 😳 and I had to stop taking Piqray, while starting Metformin, until we got the sugar under control. That set up a truly miserable weekend as I was not aware that I would get ALL THE SIDE EFFECTS from Metformin; truly, it was miserable. Then, I saw my new endocrinologist and I learned a whole lot more.

Many people (maybe as many as half) of those who take Metformin are miserable. The solution? Metformin CR (continuous release). Seriously?! My fault for starting on a Friday when I couldn’t get to anyone over the weekend, but I’m still flabbergasted that this is what happens and I had no idea.

I’m the first person to be prescribed Piqray in my medical oncologist and endocrinologist’s practices. This is an odd position to be in. My medical oncologist has asked lots of questions about what people post in the online Facebook group. I’m literally only the second person at my cancer center to be on Piqray. My endocrinologist kept asking, “but what is the mechanism within Piqray that causes sugar to spike?” Hopefully when he figures that out, we can all benefit from it. For now, I’m taking the Metformin continuous release and I’m back on Piqray at the highest dose.

While my doctors are not ignorant of the psychological affects of the struggle to get the dosage right for me, I made sure to tell them how awful the weekend was. Not only was I feeling miserable, but my whole family had major PTSD reactions. I was absent a lot from family gatherings during 2017 during chemo and surgical recovery and this past weekend felt a lot like that.

For me, other than feeling miserable physically, I was also in the midst of a minor (bordering on major) panic attack most of the weekend since I wasn’t taking any cancer medication and the jury was still out on whether I could still take Piqray and at what dose. I get that two or three days probably didn’t do much, but being unprotected by any medication caused serious anxiety.

This cancer stuff sucks. All the way around. It’s hard on everyone.

And now for my second set of Faslodex shots … at least the nurses get to catch glimpses of my tattoos. 😉

Published by Abigail Johnston

I'm a daughter, a wife, a mother, and I've been living with Stage IV Metastatic Breast Cancer since March, 2017. All of the words I publish are my own.

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19 thoughts on “My second week on Piqray and Faslodex”

  1. Totally get your anxiety. I’ve have moments where I’m a wreck when my ibrance doesn’t get to me in time. How dependent we get on our meds. Remember to have the nurse apply pressure to the injection site. Thinking of you and sending you so much love. Cancer sucks majorly. Wish all our pain we go through was enough to beat this crap. Love and prayers. ❤️

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  2. Oh wow, I’m so sorry about that my friend. Reading that gave me a little anxiety. I hope everything calms down soon. Cancer really does suck. My co worker is dealing with her grandfather diagnosis of cancer. I continue to pray for a cure and better treatments and medication with minimal side effects. Sometimes I feel side effects are worse than what they are supposed to heal. I hope you have a better weekend this time around. Hugs love and prayers ❤🦋☀️😍🌻

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    1. Hey, thanks for the well wishes. Since I have stage IV metastatic breast cancer, there is no getting better soon. If you meant to say, hope the side effects (aka side effucks) get more tolerable, that would probably make more sense. I try to always assume that people have good intentions. Love and light to you.

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      3. I LOVE your sideeffucts. I am right there with you Sister. I’m 18 days into this hell. Finally to onc. something needs to change. When we started this he said first month hard, we’ll now it’s first 2 months. How do they prescribe a med without knowing what to do about the sideeffucts?

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      4. It’s hard for the docs, I think, bc they have never taken any of these meds. I was the first person my doc had ever prescribed Piqray so we were all in the dark. There is so much more info out there now. 🤞🏻🤞🏻 for you!! ❤️

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  8. I read in your other post that you are taking high doses of B12 and other B vitamins to combat the nausea that makes us feel horrible. I intend to speak to my oncologist about initiating B12 injections asap. Thank you for sharing your experiences with us

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