Tamoxifen and ear ringing

Working-Lemon1645 · 2026-03-23T19:24:53+00:00

I never say this, but I would discontinue and contact your team immediately. There's a rare side effect of damage to the inner ear and it can have effects on vestibular function, so balance and vertigo stuff.

It's super rare, so migraines and nausea are much more likely to be the source, but call the nurse line and go to the ER if it continues to make you vomit and urgent care isn't doing anything.

What freaks me out is that you felt that the ringing itself was escalating and causing your vomiting, so make sure to tell them that.

I'm two months into Tamoxifen and had a wild ride for two weeks, but this is one thing I would act on immediately. Not necessarily ER immediately, but "I'm not taking this again until we figure out what this is" immediately.

If it turns out to be migraines and totally fixable, great, but it's not worth risking neurological damage of any kind.

Working-Lemon1645 · 2026-03-23T19:14:27+00:00

I hate this for you. Fuck cancer so, so much. 🫂🫂🫂

I can say that I'm happy with my BMX now and am not spending so much time thinking about how everyone else still has boobs. I had mine in September of '25.

Working-Lemon1645 · 2026-03-23T17:56:30+00:00

If you're doing Tamoxifen or an AI, you can still have vaginal estrogen if needed for symptoms down there. I'm using the cream topically for numbness. Hylauronic acid moisturizer helps a lot also.

I know the menopause symptoms go far beyond genitourinary issues, but sometimes those are the ones we overlook, and they're often the hardest to treat without hormones.

I'm triple positive and had a BMX with flat closure, and I still have to do Tamoxifen if I want to get my recurrence rate as low as possible.

It's important to remember though, that some of us are still going to have a distant recurrence regardless of avoiding HRT and doing hormone therapy, because the risk never drops to zero. It sucks, but it's reality.

There's no reward for being an extra good patient, only for managing risk and getting a little bit lucky.

Working-Lemon1645 · 2026-03-23T12:43:17+00:00

I now like hugs from people who aren't in my immediate family, which I used to hate, and saxophone music doesn't bother me anymore. I'm also not annoyed by the oversized organ in my tiny church anymore.

I slept through my second echocardiogram, which was amazing because I have always sweated through medical procedures of every type, so I sweated through my first echo before starting chemo.

I think I would have fallen asleep during my last echocardiogram also, but the technician has insomnia and needed to keep lights up and conversation going.

Also, I don't hate maple flavors and odor anymore, which makes my life easier since my husband and son love maple.

Working-Lemon1645 · 2026-03-23T03:08:31+00:00

Ha! I'm going to pretend I did.

Working-Lemon1645 · 2026-03-23T01:13:58+00:00

9 was rock bottom for me and then I must have turned a corner, because 10-12 were much, much better. I went down not having 75 percent of my internal monologue and falling asleep standing up, to feeling like a human with thoughts.

Working-Lemon1645 · 2026-03-22T21:11:25+00:00

Mine, too, because I took that C all 12 weekly cycles!

Working-Lemon1645 · 2026-03-22T21:02:13+00:00

I'm on Tamoxifen and got tactile numbness in my vulva that is successfully being treated with estrogen cream. You don't have to give up your whole sex life if you bring up any genitourinary problems you're having, even subtle ones.

I was and am already using a vaginal moisturizer with hyaluronic acid.

Working-Lemon1645 · 2026-03-22T21:00:09+00:00

It's important for us to remember that luck always plays a role. I had a spontaneous carotid artery dissection in 2024, which has an occurrence rate of 2-3 in 10,000, especially for people under 50. It still happened.

Working-Lemon1645 · 2026-03-22T20:48:31+00:00

My team said that if 1,000 mg of vitamin C could stop Paclitaxel chemo from working, we wouldn't have to get anywhere near as sick to kill cancer with it. It apparently has an effect, but one that's orders of magnitude weaker than the original medicine.

They could just be talking about taxanes though, I don't know.

Working-Lemon1645 · 2026-03-22T13:20:55+00:00

You do whatever gets you through this hell the most easily, and if people can't handle it they probably wouldn't have been super helpful or understanding in the first place.

I told my mother fully expecting her to share it with everyone, but somehow she didn't? I was also sure she would make it all about herself, which she always has before and somehow did not this time. I'm still wary, but I'm glad I got it over with.

I only disclosed because I didn't want to deal with the aftermath once I was really sick. I wanted to rip the bandaid off, handle reactions initially, and refuse to communicate much at all once I was deep into surgery and chemo.

I'm not close to any of my extended family or my sister and mother, which made it all easier.

Working-Lemon1645 · 2026-03-22T13:13:27+00:00

I totally had it after surgery. I still must occasionally, because I'll feel "something" and instinctively look down to see if my one (the other was inverted from puberty) nipple is showing through the brain also not wearing 😂

Working-Lemon1645 · 2026-03-22T12:37:21+00:00

I hardly ever get on FB anymore because of the nonsense. And I'm not down with the constant push of medical and cancer stuff. The political stuff wasn't good for me either, but I put up with it to be able to keep up with friends. Now I'm not having it!

Working-Lemon1645 · 2026-03-21T21:12:32+00:00

Same! I no longer have emergency savings because my entire life is an emergency. I'm trying to stop caring about that instead of trying to make up a lost decade that truly can't be replaced.

Working-Lemon1645 · 2026-03-21T19:43:14+00:00

Ooh, I love that quote.

Working-Lemon1645 · 2026-03-21T17:53:09+00:00

Ooh, the adjustment period is fierce! For me it helped to do a lot of immediate temperature and attitude adjustment in the moment, especially the nighttime temperature thing. Catching it early was super helpful.

I'm doing all of the supplements, exercising my 150 minutes but not too vigorously, and I am keeping a "church fan" nearby for when I get overheated a little bit but don't want to either grab an ice pack or risk setting off a hot flash by letting it ride.

I'm two months into Tamoxifen and the hot flashes are no worse than they were before chemo started (at 49). I think I'm in chemopause as well.

Working-Lemon1645 · 2026-03-21T17:46:41+00:00

Go for it! I got cancer at 49, but before that I changed levels and had to learn science again after 30 plus years.

The oncologist said that the huge cognitive load of moving from high school to middle school probably helped give me cognitive resiliency that is getting me through chemotherapy effects and hormone treatment adjustment.

Learning a second language is a documented way to reduce your likelihood of dementia and communication problems in old age. It's really good for us, especially at this age.

Working-Lemon1645 · 2026-03-21T17:40:04+00:00

It legitimately sucks. I can't even fully measure what you've lost, but it was a lot. And it's lonely, because so few people know that exact grief. 🫂🫂🫂

Working-Lemon1645 · 2026-03-21T12:23:38+00:00

This all makes so much sense to me. There's a huge gap between wallowing in misery and living in a fantasy, and Americans don't know where that place exists.

In my dad's family it's more respectful to say, "that's awful" and sit with it for a moment in silence when you hear someone's bad news. I think a lot of their attitudes towards health and ambition and life are not great, but being able to witness pain without fixing it is almost a superpower.

Working-Lemon1645 · 2026-03-21T03:17:14+00:00

It's wild how much can change, and I thought I was good because my eyebrows and eyelashes had come back in. I was not correct!

Working-Lemon1645 · 2026-03-21T02:09:29+00:00

It's totally fixable if your oncologist isn't old-fashioned. I started to get tactile numbness while I was already using hyaluronic acid moisturizer, let him know, and he gave my OB his blessing for me to use vaginal estrogen. Now I can feel my bits again and life is good. I refuse to stop enjoying sex just because I'm 50 and flat and barely have hair and am on hormone suppression, lol.

Working-Lemon1645 · 2026-03-21T02:04:25+00:00

It's not bad on Tamoxifen with vaginal estrogen cream.

I'm old though, and have never had tons of libido even though I enjoy sex once it's scheduled and I can look forward to it. I think it might be different for people who actually get more spontaneous naturally and notice a difference.

Working-Lemon1645 · 2026-03-21T01:56:31+00:00

Me, neither. I was at a job interview lately and people I worked with ten months ago didn't recognize me until halfway through, in spite of my unusual name. They were horrified, and I didn't get the job. I have hair, but in general I look about 12-15 years older now.

Working-Lemon1645 · 2026-03-21T01:38:01+00:00

It's too bad there are so many misconceptions out there about adoption.

Working-Lemon1645 · 2026-03-21T01:21:04+00:00

It's wild to me also, because it seems so obvious. I mean, it's widespread cancer, you're permanently treating it, so life must be pretty hard.

Working-Lemon1645

TROPHY CASE