Fatigue continues...

24242 said:

I am sorry
Yes it sounds all too familiar and sometimes very hard to get treated for. I think the medical community forgets that these kinds of problems increases chances for depression not usually the other way around.
YES it happened to me and the pain I had was unbearable most of the time. I was treated with anti depressants for years because they think we are all just anxious cancer patients instead of using medical knowledge and actually uncovering the layers of pain that existed. Often what is hard is deferred pain is a problem so where it hurts often isn't actually where the problem lies. I wish doctors would just accept what they know to be true and some of us are just that sensative to whatever they do to us instead of denying the possibility. I even got the problems that were suppose to be a 1% chance of happening and it did in most cases of my treatments, including surgery.
Still I resigned myself to all I had to do and did it and tried not to push people away along the way since I did not want to be alone. I came here to lay my true being and found the best support late at night when I was left with my own thoughts, writing helped.
I didn't work for 21 months and that was the worst because I was just too sick, in amazing pain and exhausted to do much of anything. It took over 5 years to uncover all the problems but I believed that I didn't win with cancer to live the rest of my life like that. Instead after many meds including methadone I got over it all and went on to mud and tape drywall something I have been doing for more than 7 years. A job I don't have to work every day at as well as painting.
That was to the amazement of doctors who thought that I wouldn't probably work again and if I did it would have to be part time cause I probably couldn't handle the stress. Interesting.
Tara

JMAC1123 said:

Thanks-
Thanks for taking the time to RSVP. WOW! you have been thru HELL. Your speech was very inspiring and you have fought like a true champion. It does somehow help to write about it. I never got involved in any of these sites during treatment. I was naieve in thinking if I did the procedures, all would be well in the end. It's just that the END hasn't arrived yet, I guess.

Thanks again- You have been very helpful. Best of luck to you-
JMAC

TraciInLA said:

Right there with you, JMAC
I finished active treatment 5 months ago, and am still struggling with fatigue. I can make it through a workday okay, but just have no strength or energy to do much of anything else.

I had bilateral lumpectomies, 4 rounds of TC chemo, and radiation to both breasts. My oncologist (and every book I've read on the subject) says that the severity and duration of fatigue increases with how much treatment you've had -- he has said I should start to feel better at about 6 months, but will likely not feel really back to normal until about 1 year.

I looked at your page -- lumpectomy, 6 rounds of chemo, 17 rounds of Herceptin, radiation -- girl, you've really been through it. I can honestly say I know how frustrated you feel, but I think your body just needs more time. I'm so frustrated and bored with having no energy to start trying to have a life again, but am trying to focus on taking the best care of myself I possibly can, exercising a little every day, and eating healthy, to give my body everything I can to help it recover.

Traci