Ibrance cycle 1 is in the books

One of Theo van Hoytema's
astonishingly beautiful calendar pages

This evening I took my 21st Ibrance pill, the last in my first bottle.  That makes it the last Ibrance pill of this first 28 day cycle, which will be complete after the next 7 days of only Letrozole.  Then I pop open bottle number 2 and start the whole thing over again.

Other women on Ibrance report that the week off is usually a good week with better energy, a lessening of side effects, and a general return to feeling better.

As I mentioned before, I think I'm tolerating this pretty well all in all--but I'm still really excited at the idea of hopefully not dealing as much with some of the things I'm having during these next 7 days.

The side effect I'm most hoping to get rid of?  Believe it or not, my hands and feet are super itchy!  It's a weird one, for sure, and I'm not entirely sure it isn't at least partly due to Letrozole and Lupron making sure there's no estrogen circulating in my body to provide any of those youthful benefits like healthy skin, but the itching started with the Ibrance and some other women have reported similar issues, so I have hope that I may be able to get a few days of improvement out of it.

The side effect I'm most curious to see if I can get rid of? I struggle with lymphedema in my right hand and arm and I've had a bad flare up for the past 2.5 weeks or so.  Lymphedema is swelling caused by removing the lymphnodes under my arm as part with my mastectomy--7 of the nine were filled with cancer and some had the cancer growing out and around them, so I'm glad they're gone although it does mean that I have to wear a compression sleeve and glove whenever I'm awake.  The flare up is not something reported as an Ibrance side effect and I wonder if it isn't more of a symptom of the stress my body's been under with traveling, a nasty cold, and warmer weather.  But the timing with Ibrance is suspicious so maybe this will help.

I'm glad I have Ibrance, and taking it for the past 21 days hasn't really been that bad, but that doesn't mean I'm not glad to have a few days without it!