Assessing How You feel

ldot123

Happy Friday Semi-Colons,

I woke up this morning and was feeling quite fatigued. Each time that happens I get the willies because I relate that symptom to cancer. (for those that don't know- year and 6 months out from last chemo- currently NED) I have found as I go through this journey that symptoms abound that I think "could be" a recurrence. I have found that I can take myself out of the negative spiral by instead of dwelling on the "current" symptom, then by really looking within and asking myself - Ok, how do I REALLY feel - say between one and ten - ten being incredibly lousy and 1 being not to bad. If I am am at a 2 or 3, I figure, ya know, that is not too bad' I'll see how I feel in the next couple of days. Usually, the symptom I have goes away and I start feeling fine again. Just thought I would share how I try to keep the negative thoughts at bay.

JOKE: A guy visits a brilliant Austrian psychiatrist. He says, doc, sometimes I feel like a teepee and other times I feel like a wigwam. The doctor smiles and wisely says in his broad Austrian accent: vell, I vould say that your primary problem is that you are too tense!

Have a great weekend everyone.

Peace - Lance

laudena

I feel your pain
I know what you mean Lance, When my onc told me that "I would know" when something was going wrong that I would have some pain issues in my back. Well even though I am only 3 months out of chemo,I started thinking that every little pain could be something bad. Just today on the Dennis Prager Show on radio, I heard the comment "When something bad (read cancer) you can either think of it as either a fork in the road and change your whole life goals and plans, or think of it as only a bump in the road and get on with your life. Since part of healing is the out mental state, that really made me think, "Right on, just get on with your life plans and quit worring about the what if's". If if's were money, we would all be rich. :-)

Allan

KathiM

Time makes it better...
Thankfully, all the times I thought something else had gone wrong, I was wrong. After awhile, I just got used to the idea that I WILL live longer...so I started buying things I needed, and investing in the future....

But not completely. I am almost 4 years post-dx, 3.5 years post-treatment on the rectal cancer...I just recently had a bad case of the stomach flu, which made my 'exit area' rather raw...blood on the tissue FREAKED me OUT!! I took a few breaths, started thinking what ELSE it could be, struck a pose with a mirror so I could see what was going on...and bingo! skin irritation was the troublemaker. I am sure that for the remainder of my life, I will be a bit more reactive to things, but I learned the lesson well not to discount signs completely...that's how the beast got a foothold to begin with....

Hugs, Kathi

tootsie1

I hear you on this
I was just discussing this subject with my oncologist at my visit this week. I told him I felt like I had ignored some symptoms before my diagnosis, and I don't want to do that again. Not sure I got a real good answer from him on that one. I think he's convinced that since my cancer was Stage 1, I don't have a THING to worry about. Well, chances are excellent, but it could come back, and I want to be sure I recognize it if it does. Plus, once you've had cancer, I think you just always have a little nagging doubt sticking around.

So I try to just be as positive as I can, but I like it when I feel really well, and then I don't worry. *grins*

ldot123

tootsie1 said:

I hear you on this
I was just discussing this subject with my oncologist at my visit this week. I told him I felt like I had ignored some symptoms before my diagnosis, and I don't want to do that again. Not sure I got a real good answer from him on that one. I think he's convinced that since my cancer was Stage 1, I don't have a THING to worry about. Well, chances are excellent, but it could come back, and I want to be sure I recognize it if it does. Plus, once you've had cancer, I think you just always have a little nagging doubt sticking around.

So I try to just be as positive as I can, but I like it when I feel really well, and then I don't worry. *grins*

Thanks for the input
Thanks everyone,
It seems we are all sensitive to how we feel. It is frustrating though. Woke up today under the weather again. I wish I could have a run of a few days in a row where I felt OK. I think my immune system is lousy after all the chemo and I will pick up anything that goes around. It seems when I spealk to my onc. he is somewhat non committal in terms of what symptoms to expect aside from the standard colon cancer symptoms. No idea what the symptoms of metastisis is. One of the problems I have is that I get symptoms that are sometimes vague for example I will feel kind of nauseous, kind of achy, pain here a pain there, run down etc.. I guess as long as any tests are coming back normal then I should be grateful.

Take care all, Lance

ldot123

laudena said:

I feel your pain
I know what you mean Lance, When my onc told me that "I would know" when something was going wrong that I would have some pain issues in my back. Well even though I am only 3 months out of chemo,I started thinking that every little pain could be something bad. Just today on the Dennis Prager Show on radio, I heard the comment "When something bad (read cancer) you can either think of it as either a fork in the road and change your whole life goals and plans, or think of it as only a bump in the road and get on with your life. Since part of healing is the out mental state, that really made me think, "Right on, just get on with your life plans and quit worring about the what if's". If if's were money, we would all be rich. :-)

Allan

Back pain
Hey Allan,

What did your Onc mean by back pain? I have had back issues since chemo? Mostly in the muscle area, very deep and tender. Had it through chemo also. Nothing has shown up on tests.

Lance

pamness

ldot123 said:

Thanks for the input
Thanks everyone,
It seems we are all sensitive to how we feel. It is frustrating though. Woke up today under the weather again. I wish I could have a run of a few days in a row where I felt OK. I think my immune system is lousy after all the chemo and I will pick up anything that goes around. It seems when I spealk to my onc. he is somewhat non committal in terms of what symptoms to expect aside from the standard colon cancer symptoms. No idea what the symptoms of metastisis is. One of the problems I have is that I get symptoms that are sometimes vague for example I will feel kind of nauseous, kind of achy, pain here a pain there, run down etc.. I guess as long as any tests are coming back normal then I should be grateful.

Take care all, Lance

Glad I am not the only one
I saw your post, I am a year and 3 months out of treatment. I still have days when I am fatigued. I never associated that feeling with the return of cancer, but I am glad I am not the only one you still feels tired.

Instead of worrying about it being cancer - I am just glad that it only happens sometimes. I also figured (probably incorrectly) that any return would probably by asymptomatic, so if something feels bad - it's probably not cancer. I'm not an idiot, and would certainly have anything checked at that was really odd, but I look at aches and pains, etc. as a return to normal life.

Pam

ldot123

pamness said:

Glad I am not the only one
I saw your post, I am a year and 3 months out of treatment. I still have days when I am fatigued. I never associated that feeling with the return of cancer, but I am glad I am not the only one you still feels tired.

Instead of worrying about it being cancer - I am just glad that it only happens sometimes. I also figured (probably incorrectly) that any return would probably by asymptomatic, so if something feels bad - it's probably not cancer. I'm not an idiot, and would certainly have anything checked at that was really odd, but I look at aches and pains, etc. as a return to normal life.

Pam

Thanks Pam
Hi Pam,

Sounds like we are almost the same distance out of treatment. I am a bit longer out. I will have a few days of feeling OK then wham, the fatigue sets in again. So annoying. I now have some sort of virus that I think has been going around. Lots of aches and a cough plus tired. I think we are all more susceptible to bugs due to a weakened immune system. I wonder if there have been studies about this. I kind of like your theory of asymptomatic symptoms. Maybe I will go with that to. (at least I will feel better) I have seen your other posts and can't remember what stage you were at. Just curious.

Lance