Bula Laurie

That's how I was greeted when crossing paths with a Fijian on Navini Island. Navini is a remote, private island inhabited only by the owners, the Fijian staff and visitors like us staying in one of the 10 bures.











You get to know the friendly Fijian island staff by name because they spend time with you. Cooking and serving fresh delicious food with genuine welcoming smiles. Teaching you how to weave a basket using palm fronds. Climbing a coconut tree and collecting a coconut for you so that you can taste the sweet milk and flesh inside.




















Guiding you on a snorkle excursion through the warm blue pristine water. Sikeli taught me how to dive down deep to see a giant clown fish and sea anenome hiding beneath a forest of colorful coral. He also warned us to shuffle our feet through the sand to avoid surprising a beautiful green and blue polka-dotted stingray. We swam along side baby sharks that circle the island and schools of a variety of brilliantly colored fish and coral.



















The Fijians included us in games of Vindi Vindi during the kava ceremony each evening. We spent time and became fast friends with couples from London, Italy, Australia, Poland and New York.



















We Parasailed!
















We were honored to be asked to be witnesses for Mark and Frankie's beautiful beachside sunset wedding which was punctuated by Frankie being escorted down a sandy path by two Fijian warriors. It was an unforgettable and beautiful ceremony and I wish them many many years of health and happiness!




















We filled our days with snorkling, beach volleyball, sea kayaking and reading and napping under our palapa, surrounded by the ever-present sound of the surf. Shoes were taken off on arrival and left off for nine days.

















No t.v., phone or newspaper to interrupt our 9 days of catharsis. I was even invited by a wonderful lady from Australia to do yoga with in front of her burre several times.




















John and I left our troubles behind, experienced with wonder and excitement the world below the surface of the ocean, so enjoyed the Fijian people, cried some pent up tears and felt time s l o w down. Just what the proverbial doctor ordered.

Time To Rejuvenate

This time next week John and I will be on the beach in Fiji! After a trying year for both of us we decided a few weeks ago to look for a great place to snorkle and escape for a while.

Navini is a small island. You can walk around its shore-line in 10 minutes). No day-trippers are allowed so it will just be us, the resort staff and the occupants of the other 9 bures on the island.

I am so excited to learn about the Fijian culture. We'll have the opportunity to visit villages on other islands as the Navini island staff will boat, us free of charge, on an excursion each morning.

We also plan to parasail.

We are so fortunate to be able to take this trip. Renewal is important. So is taking advantage of every day we have on this beautiful planet!

Is It All In My Head?

So the good news is....the muscle and joint pain I feel is not caused by my joints degenerating. I was getting quite concerned that Femara, which keeps my body from producing estrogen, was having a degenerative effect.

My ankles, knees and hips ache. This is not new. For a while now, however, I've felt that my knee joints were slipping when I am out running. Do you know the slipping feeling? You get a sharp pain below the kneecap and then the knee sort of collapses and you have to catch yourself. My mind associates lasting new abnormal aches and pains, that occur more than they used to, to the effects of Femara.

So I submitted another question to the University of Montana Drug Information Service. I wanted to know if my joint pain, stiffness and slipping weirdness was going to progressively get worse. I wanted to know if it was caused by Femara. My fear was that I wouldn't be able to run at some point. Below is their response.

Thank you for your question regarding Femara and muscle or joint deterioration.

Femara (letrozole) is an aromatase inhibitor that is used in the adjuvant treatment of breast cancer and the prevention of its recurrence. It blocks the action of the aromatase enzyme, which converts androgens to estrogens. Letrozole causes the near complete inhibition of the aromatase enzyme, which will results in a considerable depletion of estrogen levels after two to four days of therapy. This results in the starvation of estrogen-sensitive cancer cells. There have been no published reports of letrozole causing muscle or joint deterioration, but it has been reported to cause musculoskeletal pain, with a 22% incidence of arthralgia and bone pain, 18% incidence of back pain, 10% incidence of limb pain, and a 7% incidence of arthritis and myalgia. The exact cause of musculoskeletal pain is unclear, but the estrogen deprivation associated wtih aromatase inhibitor therapy may provide some explanation.

Estrogen may have an effect on how a person responds to pain. It has been shown that estrogen seems to have an anti-inflammatory effect on tissues in the body, which has been illustrated by the improvement of rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and inflammatory bowel disease in women who are pregnant and therefore have higher estrogen levels. Studies suggest that high levels of estrogen may help reduce pain by causing the release of endorphins and enkephalins in the receptors that reduce pain sensitivity in the body. Neurons in the brain and spinal cord that contain opioid receptors may have estrogen receptors that reduce pain sensitivity in the presence of estrogen. When estrogen levels decrease, the ability to reduce pain is diminished. Estrogen deficiency can also cause loss of bone mineral density, which may also contribute to arthralgias.


Aromatase inhibitors such as letrozole, can cause musculoskeletal pain. The exact mechanism is unknown, but there have been no published reports indicating the pain is due to joint or muscle deterioration. The current hypothesis is that the estrogen deficiency caused by aromatase inhibitors may be responsible for increasing the body's sensivity to pain.

There you have it! The pain is in my head (my brain to be exact)! I feel pain more clearly now because I don't have estrogen to block my brain from perceiving it. Thats all. This makes me feel much better about my future. I can handle the pain. Anyone who exercises knows that pain from working your body can feel good. You know you have "damaged" your muscles enough that they will rebuild stronger.

Now when I wake in the morning and hobble to the bathroom I will remember that my joints are fine. I am just feeling more than I used to.

Here's John and I out on a hike a few weeks ago. Check out my hair 3 months post chemo!