Suffering from constant Fatigue

KrisandTony

My Girlfriend was recently diagnosed with Hodgkins Stage 3A (non-symptomatic) and has gone through 3 doses of ABVD chemotherapy. All has gone well as she hasn't been too overrun until this last dose. Understanding that things like fatigue will take place over the course of the treatment, but does anyone have any suggestions on ways of battling this fatigue. She is attempting to go to work, but as she gets so run down, it's harder to go on a daily basis. Please let us know, from your experiences, what are the best ways to beat the fatigue. Thanks!!!

AlloMan

Sleep. Fatigue is part of the deal when it comes to chemo. My guess is that she will have to make one of two choices: either work and sleep, or live her non-work life and sleep. I don't know how important it is to her to work, but not only might it be running her down, but the chemo may be running her immune system down, and if she works with a lot of people, she may be exposing herself to a lot of germs and viruses. I think what also might help: as much fresh air as she can get, stretching and light exercise.

sherra

I underwent ABVD too.. I did a couple of things to beat fatique. I cut back my work hours. It was important for insurance purposes that I continue working but I was able to cut my hrs. I also took the advice of some chemo nurses and saved my energy for important things. If I knew my boyfriend wanted to see a movie on Sat. night, I didn't spend Sat. afternoon cleaning the house. Instead I depended on others around me to help out with the housework that week so I'd have energy to do stuff that was important to me. I also spent alot of time doing "nothing", during chemo its important to give your body a chance to rest and I did a lot of that! The first four days after chemo I usually spent around the house resting, taking it easy and not doing a whole lot of anything. I think its important for someone undergoing chemo to remember just that, that they should take it easy on themselves and not work so hard.

kawilson

I appreciate the feeling of fatigue... I completed 6 months of chemo finishing in September.
Remember alot of this is in the mind, if you sit around and feel sorry and tired then you have no hope, get up, keep moving and you will keep going strong. It helped me!

noeldenise

I had to work full time while going though all of the cancer treatments. It helped me a lot to schedule my chemo treatment on Friday, so that I could have the weekend to recover. If there are people around you asking if there is anything they can do LET THEM! If you can afford to have someone else take care of house work go for it.