oral regime begins - technicalities

Just past 9pm on this monday.  I have not slept since saturday, so I'm pretty out of it.  Lots of chest/abdomen tightness pain pressure going on, and breathing is always hard.  Sometimes pain sites change from day to day, or through-out the day, or go on for days.. there's no way you can predict its path.  Rarely is the body still, and at peace.  Sometimes, it is, for a little while at least.
Today I started the oral meds.  Letrozole (Femara) and Ibrance.  The constrast of costs for these two drugs is crazy.  The Letrozole costs maybe a nickel apiece... crazy cheap.  The Ibrance, on the other hand costs close to $100 per pill.  They are meant to work together, the Ibrance specifically enhancing the qualities of the Letrozole.
Leterozole is meant for post-menapausal women with HER2-positive breast cancer.  HER2-positive breast cancer is a breast cancer that tests positive for a protein called human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), which promotes the growth of cancer cells.  Ibrance is meant to be used with Letrozole.  The effectiveness of Ibrance plus letrozole is based on a study that measured progression-free survival. There is an ongoing study to find out how Ibrance works in combination with letrozole over a longer period of time.
Both can have side effects similar to iV chemo infusion.  Ibrance includes more serious effects, with low white blood cell count being the most common, as well as low RBC and platelet counts. Pulmonary embolisms are also common.  Regular testing and treatments for these things will be on-going.
There are at least a dozen other common chemo side-effects, including "unusual" hair thinning or hair loss.  Not too sure why they include the word unusual.
There are many things to watch out for, but I prefer not to "expect" the side-effects, lest they are self-fulfilling. Often, many of these effects will not even show themselves.  Time will tell, and I will be on these drugs for however many years I have ahead of me.