So tired...

I was astounded at how weak I felt after my partial neph.  Your body is working so hard right now to heal and rearrange itself inside after being messed with, and you're only a month or so out.  It's really deceiving because when you heal so well externally, kind of makes you feel like okay I'm good to go, but the internal part takes much longer.  I'd venture to say that in the next few weeks you'll notice a difference in your stamina.  In the meantime, listen to your body, when you're spent, take a break, even if it's just for half an hour or so. 

Patience grasshopper. 

I'm praying for you,

Donna~

I went back .5. It was OK but I was so wasted after a day at work I couldnt competently plan or grade papers. With the tiredness I felt at work I was probably less patient with difficult students than I could have been (I taught grades 10-12).

You dont say how far your cancer had spread or grown. I can only give you my experience. I couldnt keep up 0.5 as side effects from various drugs kicked in, but the school were able to dedicate a sub to be me when I couldnt make it.

I had to retire last Nov, because my continuing teaching was good for neither me nor the students. My cancer is Grade 4 aggressive and metastatic. I believe yours is much smaller so I hope you can get back to your job.

I was 36, quite healthy and athlete once I was diagnosed with stage two kidney cancer. I had radical neph and had six weeks off. First three weeks I had no energy and needed to take rest most of the time but I felt much better on next three weeks. Although the first week I came back to work I was quite exhausted too. Things got easier little by little but I had severe chest pain which made me emotionally crazy with no reason for almost a year. That is also gone now

stub1969 said:

Teaching

Good morning, Angie!

Working in K-12 also, you know how tired you get the first couple weeks--even with two kidneys and fully healthy.  I hope you get a little bit more stamina within a couple weeks, but expect to be pretty tired after a few days of school.  I'm sure you've talked with your principal about your situation and the possibility of working .5 days at first.  We start in a couple weeks also, but I'm in the early stages of this prognosis.  I'll meet with the doctor next Friday and we'll see where we go from there.

I wish you luck in your recovery and enjoy the kids!

Stub

Also see if you can get a student aide assigned to you to help with lifting, distributing and making coffee

foxhd said:

It has been suggested

that status post nephrectomy, anemia is an issue and iron should be checked. Others find thyroid issues. But the fatigue is common. Recheck your blood work.

Post nephrectomy I suggest also you follow your Vitamin D levels closely. The kidney plays an important role in making Vitamin D available to the body. It's a combination of liver and kidney. I was already low in Vitamin D and after my nephrectomy my Vitamin D level really went down. I've been taking supplements ever since and having it checked regularly. I also started testing low on B12 and never had that problem before. Low B12 can make you feel really tired.

In addition, you should follow your blood pressure closely in the months following your nephrectomy. Adrenal and kidneys have a big impact on blood pressure and are central to blood pressure (high BP can damage kidneys, but also kidneys and adrenals feedback into controlling your BP. Kidney damage can cause high BP). My BP went up over the months after my nephrectomy. I eventually had to go on BP meds. Oddly enough, after my adrenal gland was removed (I had an RCC tumor in my right adrenal), my BP returned to normal. I often have wondered if the combination of 1 kidney + 2 adrenals caused my high BP or if the other adrenal having a tumor in it caused it to go wacko.

Good to monitor all of these things. I see a kidney specialist every 3-4 months and get everything tested.

Regards,

Todd