realistic expectations

sbrasher
sbrasher Member Posts: 1
edited March 2014 in Head and Neck Cancer #1
I am just about to start radiation treatments for supragalotic cancer. I am not sure how many weeks of treatment but around 6. I teach at a university and am trying to plan around the treatments and side affects. I can either take the whole semester off or continue teaching but make arrangements for a few weeks of my classes to be taught on-line or by someone else. I think I will go crazy with nothing to do but sit around and dwell on the cancer and my treatments and would like to work. However, I want to be fair to the students and not bail out on them too much. The doctors have given me different, unfelpful advice.

Comments

  • SIRENAF42
    SIRENAF42 Member Posts: 202
    #2
    Not sure of your location of cancer but
    I probably could have worked up through week 4 of my treatments, each person is different. I had to travel out of town for my treatments, so working wasnt an option and I did find myself bored and took up painting to keep my busy. I was unable to return to work until about one month after my treatments, then I only worked parttime for about another month. Again each person is different.
  • jejrdn
    jejrdn Member Posts: 28
    #3
    Hi there. I was able to work through all of my radiation treatments. I had one per day for 33 days. Like Sirena states, everyone is different. I was lucky in the fact that I didn't get fatigue, mouth sores, loss of saliva or taste. The only thing that I had to deal with was a chronic stuffy/dry nose and that went away about 1 to 1 1/2 months post treatments. I just found a plan that worked for me and it worked well. So my suggestion would be to not dwell on something that you don't know yet. You know you have cancer, you know you will have radiation, but you don't know how your body will react. See in time as the treatments progress how you are doing. Your body will tell you if it is time to start making arrangements for your work. Your work will always be there but most importantly you have to take care of yourself. People are truly understanding when it comes to this I found. Hang in there and I hope this helped. Take care.

    Brian

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