4 months out from treatment and side effects

Hi Mark,

Welcome to the H&N forum, I am glad you have been so very successful in your treatment.  If all your systems check out as fine, then you probably do just need additional time to recover.  If your work is very physical then I would expect to see a lag in stamina.  To be honestly truthful, it is a unique and few H&N members who have traveled all the way back to “old normal”.  Most recover to a happy medium with their new self.  After all, in your old self there was probably excess, unused energy, so you might land in a good place after all of this.

You will want to keep an eye on your thyroid; many of us are now on meds for this.

There are a lot of Type A H&N members and you are probably one of them.

Good luck.

Matt

Mark,

I do not have statistical data either up or down on survivor energy levels following treatment.   I am sure they exist, but you may have to spend time with doctor Google for them.

Most members see improvements to energy, taste, dry mouth, etc. over a long period of time (many months if not years). I am happy for members who do well and feel sad for those who don’t, but there isn’t anything I can do about it.  The way you feel today may not reflect the way you will feel in a year.   Take good care of yourself, eat right, be a good steward of your body and maybe you will be paying 100 employees every 2 weeks.

Matt

Mark, 

I will echo Matt with keeping an eye on your Thyroid levels (TSH). We get hit with the Radiation that can cause our Thyroid to fail, mine lasted nearly 5 years before it failed and as Matt mentioned, I am on a generic med for it and it helps with my energy. 

My RO told me that the Radiation can cause Fatigue issues for roughly 1 year or a bit longer, I fell into the bit longer group, but steadily got more energy the further out from treatments I got. Now I am 70 and still split wood by hand or log splitter, which ever I am in the mood to do. As mentioned, listen to your body. 

My Best to You and Everyone Here

Im 57 years of age, 16 weeks out of treatment nearly. I have run every day since 3 weeks out, clocked up 50 miles last week and have my first marathon of the year in 3 weeks time. I took 6 weeks before i went back to work. Im making sure my new normal is my pre cancer treatment normal, at the moment Im looking at a 3:30 marathon in 3 weeks time which is about 25 minutes slower for me but getting there. I just belive high levels of exercise make me stronger and help the recovery process.

I eat anything put infront of me, mouth is a little drier than it used to be but i drink plenty of water.

best of luck

Andy

I'm with Phrannie on this.  We got hit pretty hard, but especially pretty fast, and we tend forget or misunderstand how hard that hit was.  I personally had no other experience to measure it against.  At 10 months post I am finally getting back to my old energy level.  I have done lots of things in those 10 months including travel and geologic field work, by no means was inactive, but have also been sleeping 10-12 hours at night and still dropping off for naps during the day.  It's actually a quite civilized activity that afternoon nap.

Mavish said:

Just wanted to ahare my

Just wanted to ahare my experience. My treatment is completed about 18 mo ago. I got nouth ulsers after a month after the treatment, which was called late radiation complication. I had been a go getter who works long hours. My energy level is still not in the pre treatment level. But slowly gets better. Not as fast as I wiahbfot, though. For a long time, Islept 12 hours a day and in additionnI had long napa during the day. Now I am back at work, I sleep less, but most of the mornings I wake up tired. 

There is a fatigue clinic in my hospital. They look at blood tests for anemia, thyroid hypofunction, etc.. and phycologic issues..

Their suggestions are regular physical excercise, taking small breaks during day before start feeling tired, good nutririon and sleep hygene. 

I have learned to listen to my body, and find a compromoise between what my brain wants to do and what my body allow me to do. 

Hope helps

 

I'm only 3 months post treatment, but I suffered fatigue and neuropathy in my legs. I am a work-a-holic and also maintain our 2.5 acres. I do not like taking medications, so my doctor told me to get back in the gym. I gotta say, after just two weeks of working out daily, I feel much better. No more naps, fatigue is all but gone and the numbness in my legs is hardly noticeable.