I'm almost four months out of treatments for breast cancer now and I thought I could just forget the whole thing, like an episode or a bad cold, but the emotional impact of it all has astonished--and embarrassed--me. But in case someone else is experience this reaction, I will share it. I feels normal, somehow, however unwelcome.

It's been almost three weeks since I quit taking Arimidex--against one doctor's urgent advice to stay on it and following another's urgent recommendation to get off--and the pain is letting up some, but not gone.

I've been taking Arimidex, a Tamoxifen alternative, hoping to avoid the side-effects so many friends had complained about Tamoxifen. I didn't realize I'd possibly suffer even worse with Arimidex.