Fatigue

Tabatha00

At what point does the fatigue from radiation start?   I've had 10 of 28 treatments and I'm tired.  

dsj

I felt really tired yesterday (after my finishing my 14th out of 25).  But I'm also not sleeping well, so it's hard to disentangle it.  When I spoke to the rad onc this week, she said radiation fatigue feels different from regular tiredness and I would know it when I felt it.  A couple of times, I've had this sudden overwhelming sense of fatigue, so I'm thinking it's started or is heading my way. 

3monstmama

At 10 of 28 you are allowed to feel tired.  I find it comes and goes.  I tried to get more sleep from the beginning and also lower my stress which I think helped hold it off for a while.  But not I'm coming home early and taking naps, waking up for dinner, staying up an couple of hours and going back to bed.

What it feels like to me is just like I feel when I have been working 12-14 hour days for weeks and weeks and weeks.  It feels like week 6 of that only I haven't been working nearly as hard.

gfbaker

I got tired about 2 weeks into rads and stayed tired the whole time. Not too exausted, more the I haven't had my coffee yet tired. Interestingly enough, my fatigue went away when I got the booster rads. I think because they are concentrated in a smaller area. Anyway, when it is all over your fatigue should go away quickly I hope.

Anonymous

I am so fatigued and I finished rads in April. Anyone else experince fatigue this far out?

3monstmama

I think its a very individual thing.  Plus you have to factor in what is zap fatigue and what is stress fatigue from the stupidbreastcancer.

I finished my zaps in May.  I exercised during zaps and though tired felt I did pretty well.   Then when zaps ended, I came down with radiation pneumonitis.  I knew there was something wrong when I was having to stop midway up the block climbing the hill to my bus.

Now I still seem to get more tired more quickly but not as bad as right after zaps or during the pneumonitis.  I seem to recall being told that pneumonitis can appear any time in that first year post zaps.  Have you mentioned it to your doctor?

Leah_S

Another thing that can influence how you feel after rads is if you had chemo. I've heard that 3-6 months to get back to yourself after rads, 6-12 months after chemo & rads is normal.

I was still extremely tired 9 months out from chemo & rads when I was dx with bone mets. At that point I was put on Femara, which also causes fatigue (I had been on tamox before that). So if you're on Femara or another AI that could also make a difference.

Best of luck.

Leah

Barbcard2

Are there any antidotes for rad fatigue?  I'm just starting on rads and afraid of effects, esp. the fatigue mentioned by several.

3monstmama

Barbcard2,

I was encouraged by my radiation oncologist to exercise all through rads---walking, biking, whatever--because exercise helps with the fatigue.  I hate gyms so certainly didn't start going now but I did try to walk to/from treatment.  I also did some short [3miles maybe] bike rides in the afternoon with my kids. I went to bed on time or early and kept well hydrated.  The fatigue was there but not completely awful until the end.  My boss is going through rads right now, he is on his fourth week and is not finding the fatigue too bad.

Rads was something I was VERY Scared about.  Now that I'm on the other side, I almost giggle as it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it might be.