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Hal61 said:

Fatigue
Hi Charles, glad to hear you're through treatment. I'm three months out of treatment and still fighting fatigue. I was going for short walks or bike rides, but have slowed them down lately. My days can be with more or less energy, but overall I'm gaining. Don't rush it, you're young and your strength should return to you soon, but it well may take a couple of months or more. Fatigue is an ongoing factor for a lot of us. I'm signed up for a telephone conference call on the subject on the 21st sponsored by the ACS. They have phone talk and discussion several time a month of a variety of subjects. If anyone is interested you can contact your local ACS for info. Keep in there Charles, it will get better.

Hal

Scambuster said:

The 'J' Curve Chaz.
Hi Charles,

Your situation is sort of normal for this time of your journey. It is maybe the worst time and especially with your expectations being that the pain and suffering would stop once you finished treatment. Unfortunately it doesn't. I was in bad shape after treatment and had to be re-hospitalized after 10 days out so I know very well how awful it is. You will get through it man.

If you get real bad and emotionally traumatized, call your Docs. You may easily fall into a depression so watch for signs, : crying, not wanting to get out of bed, change in moods and helplessness ++. The docs can treat this.

Also if you are not sleeping, this can aggravate your condition. You need your sleep and plenty if you can.

Hang in there Charles, it may be a couple of weeks yet before you round the bend. Don't measure improvement by the day as your condition will fluctuate for a while. Measure by the week.

We are all thinking about you during this tough period. Just know it will get better and you will look back on this rough period from a much better place.

Scam

davidgskinner said:

The end was the worst
The end of chemo and radiation was the absolute worst for me as well. I felt really bad for a few weeks after I was finished (April 2010), and that really bummed me out because I had done the hard part, or so I thought. What helped me was to give myself a definite purpose during those awful days. I made myself a schedule for each feeding tube session, medication, etc. and kept to it. Counted every calorie and I even made myself take a certain number of swallows of water every 15 minutes. It worked for me. At least I think it did. Probably having a combination of good nutrition/hydration and a purpose helped the healing.
But it does get better...

MarineE5 said:

Marathon
Charles,

You are in a Marathon and it is mile 25 now. Your mouth is dry, your legs feel like rubber and you want to lay down and take a nap. You don't want to take another step. But something tells you, that you can't do that just yet. You want to get to that finish line.

You can see the top of the banners just over the crest of the next hill. Your stride is a bit shorter now, basically, placing one foot in front of the other. Not at a good pace like the beginning, when your were taking 3-4 foot strides, now at 1-2 foot steps at a time. You have hit the WALL, your fatigue level is flat, sleep is the only thing you can think of. Where is that water, my throat is so dry, like a Desert.

In reality, it will be about 4-5 weeks, maybe sooner that you will have one good day per week. Then it will be two days per week. My Radiation Oncologist told me that I might have to deal with the Fatigue issue for nearly one year. I found that I had to deal with it longer then that. But as it has been mentioned before, each of us react differently then the next person. Your nearly there, don't quit now. You can do this.
Remember, there are only 3 things you can't do. 1- slam a revolving door 2- strike a match on a wet bar of soap and 3- can't put used toothpaste in a used toothpaste tube, anything else you can do. Now get down and give me 20. : )

My Best to You and Everyone Here

Pam M said:

Par for the Course

"Please tell me that it will get better soon!" Define "soon".

We're with you - my docs told me the last week of rads and the next three would be the worst part for me, then I'd see improvements in spurts. Guess they'd played this game before. I, too was let down to not see even a tiny bit of improvement after treatment, even though they'd told me to expect none.

I can tell you that by six weeks out, I was MUCH better. Napping less, eating lots of things (after no solids by mouth for a few weeks), and "correctly" tasting most. Not to mention reduced pain and healed skin. I will say my recovery did take a step back in some areas, but I've regained most of the lost ground.

Hard to tell you to be patient, when I wasn't (and am not). "Hang in there" sounds so lame, but do it, and know we're pulling for you.

Irishgypsie said:

New Question?
Hey, Thanks for everyone's replies! I truly, truly thank you from the bottom of my heart!!

Have new question? Right the tough part is getting sleep, but it seems that I have constant secretions; not necessarily thick but constant. I know I'm not swallowing like normal right now; so I have constant spit..using a spit cup and wash cloths to wipe mouth. But the trick getting sleep and drool/spit build up. I have noticed that when I was using the pain meds it dried my mouth and allowed me to fall asleep eventually for a hour or two. Should I try benadryl? Also, what about the liquid mucinex? Thanks! Your Rochester Gypsie!

Charles