294. Two Years on Verzenio: Side Effects, Brain Fog, and Why I'm Glad I Did It | Jen Tipton

Jennifer Tipton was in her mid-forties, running a yoga business in California, teaching indoor cycling classes, and training clients when she was diagnosed with stage 3 estrogen-positive breast cancer at the start of 2021. Her entire year — AC chemotherapy, then Taxol, then a lumpectomy, then a double mastectomy with a DIEP flap reconstruction, then 33 rounds of radiation — was consumed by treatment. By the end of it, she was exhausted in a way most people can't quite imagine.

And then her oncologist told her about Verzenio (abemaciclib), a CDK4/6 inhibitor prescribed to help reduce the risk of recurrence in certain patients.

We discuss: 

• what it felt like transitioning from active treatment to long-term medication
 • how movement and exercise helped her maintain energy and resilience
 • strategies she used to manage GI side effects during daily life
 • the emotional complexity of long-term cancer therapy
 • what improved after completing treatment
 • advice for patients deciding whether Verzenio is right for them