Recovery - expectations?

Bigskyborn

Greetings,

I had a question that was more on the post-treatment side of cancer.  

My spouse had stage 4 non-Hodgkins and went through 4 months of treatment and is now in remission. 

We had wonderful care and amazing staff and support during treatment.  However post-treatment, as we attempt to reastablish some normalcy, we have been somewhat on our own and so we look here to the community for perhmaps some insight.  

We understood  that treatment will zap you completely, but what we don’t know is how long after treatment will it continue to zap you of energy.   We understand as well that it’s different for everyone but some sort of baseline would be nice to understand.  

As an example, my spouse is in 40s and before diagnosis was in good shape.  However 5 months since last treatment and still gets winded  easily.  We go on 1.5 miles hikes (were we elevate our heart rates) almost daily and the progress has been there but very marginal.  My spouse is frustrated, and was expecting a faster recovery.   

So our question to you all is, what has been your experiences post treatment in terms of getting back to “normal”?  How long did it take you until you felt like you were back to your prediagnosis physical condition?    

We appreciate all of you and understand everyone is fighting their own personal battle and we all have different journeys both before, during and hopefully post recovery.   You are all amazing and we wish everyone much support during the entire process. 

ShadyGuy

Wondering

What type of Non-hodgkins lymphoma did she have? What treatment was given? Is there a maintenance therapy?

Bigskyborn

 

 

Primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma with R-chop and no maintenance therapy. 

ShadyGuy

A subtype of DLBCL

Just my non professional opinion based on someone I know about the same age with similar diagnosis. Excellent prognosis for most of these cases. Give it 9 months. No guarantees but you have reason to be very optimistic.

Bigskyborn

Thank you!

Thank you!

Gwfl

I started R-CHOP 2 years ago

I started R-CHOP 2 years ago and handled it fairly well (69 yrs old).  15 doses of light radiation helped me achieve remission early in 2019.  I one real problem I had was fatigue...just couldn't shake it.  Got my heart and lungs tested which were all good.  Recovery was slow....very slow.  Along the way found I had severe sleep apnea and just recently have been treating that successfully.  Feeling good now but terribly out of shape (I was fit and trim before dx) so trying to get back my old discipline.  For me it feels like a very long road and that there will be no getting back to normal only a "new normal"....just have to wait and see what that will be.  

Bigskyborn

Thank you for your sharing   

Thank you for your sharing   

I sympathize for what you are going through.   Thank you for your honesty and I hope you comtinue to find the strength to keep moving forward.  

lindary

fatigue

I've had problems with low iron levels when I was a teen. Fast forward to being in my 50's I was told my thyroid was low. Started on meds for that. Still I felt tired. When I was told I had cancer (follicular lymphoma) I thought I would be sleeping 24/7. I didn't although I found with each cycle I had a day or 2 I needed my naps. It takes time but you just need to keep putting one foot in front of the other. Over time you will be doing it with more energy. 

Lym999

I just completed 6 rounds of

I just completed 6 rounds of what is called 2 R-Chop for Large B-cell lymphoma. I had normal r-chop plus Revelmid added for ten days after chemo treatments. I can say I didn't have much problem with it and since completing it I have returned pretty much to normal. My hair had come back in just three months and my energy level is back to what it was before cancer. I did a lot of walking while on chemo and it seemed to help me a lot. I had no fatigue and besides constipation and Neuropathy very little other symptoms. I am a 60-year-old male by the way. If anyone wants to reach out to me feel free to.