Now I know why my doctor sighed with relief when she asked me what medications I was taking and I said "nothing". I know it won't last.

ahh allergy season - unfortunatly singular is only being taken by a friend of mine that has an allergy cocktail - singular, a dailly inhaler and clarinex. durring the bad season - add an emergency inhlaer (abuteral) , benadryl, sudefed ,and allegra.

Connie, I suspect it needs to be taken for a few days to get the drug to a steady-state level in your blood. The first few days it might help somewhat, but after a few days is probably when the maximum effect would kick in.

Teppy, is it one of those that has to be taken for several days before effetive? Because Doc was making noises like I'd see immediate results.

Not Teppy, but my doc told me it would take a few days to a week to see results. And, that has been my experience.

Stupid doctor. He practically told me it was a "take when you need it" drug.

My doc told me it is a "take every day" drug. I've gone off it a couple of times because my prescription ran out. It would take about 4 days for enough of it to leave my system, then I'd start coughing again. I'd get the prescription refilled and it would take about 4 days for the coughing to stop.

I wish my UPS delivery would come. I haven't showered yet, 'cause I've been waiting for it. Just my luck, it'll come at 5pm.

I'm very fortunate to have very few side effects from the current meds.

We hates MAOIs, yes we do....

Coincidentally, I spent an hour this morning at my HMO talking with a nice woman about drugs to make me less twitchy and let me sleep. She seemed appalled that no one had prescribed me any sleeping medicine. I didn't go into the whole story about how the oncologist didn't want to prescribe anything because it could be habit-forming. This being the same oncologist who gave me all the gloomy statistics. My feeling is that once I've had more time to adjust to the whole cancer thing I'll be happy to work on the minor annoyance of getting off sleeping pills. I think the anxiety is partly the fact that I finally feel better from all the treatment, so my mind is now free to run in "now what do I do" circles, and partly from the tamoxifen, which is known to cause anxiety and depression. I do wonder about whether tamoxifen really causes anxiety, in that most of the women taking it have had cancer, and therefore might not be all that cheery anyway.

The HMO now has a system in which you get to spend a lot of time with a fancy nurse (her card reads RN, MS, CS), who then consults with the doctor, rather than 10 minutes with the psychiatrist. She was trying to figure out how to work around the tamoxifen, two blood pressure medications, two asthma medications, one allergy medication, and my tendency to have every medication on earth keep me awake. Sigh. At least it was good to talk to someone who seemed determined to make me feel better. It was like talking to a nice grandmother with a prescription pad.

We hates MAOIs, yes we do....

Yes. Poor Emily had to also deal with my lack of food options when on that one. I think she was just as thankful as I was that I went off of it.