radiation fatigue

hamiltonheights

Hi friends, I finished 8 weeks of bi-lateral radiation two weeks ago. I am happy to be done finally, but now i am finding that I am quite tired and also listless. I just can't do as much as I could before. I can get to work, and then get home and maybe make dinner for my 13 year old. but not much else. I'm 51, fyi. We are supposed to go visit family this summer in Europe, but the thought of travel sounds so exhausting. I feel like a percentage of my former self. How long for this feeling to go away?

Professor50

Hi There! Oh yes! Radiation is just profoundly exhausting. Someone here described it as being handed a really heavy rock to carry everyday. And at the end of it all, the load is really heavy. My RO told me that I would be just wiped for a while. He said that what would happen is that I would probably wake up one day a mont down the line and suddenly realize that I didn't feel tired anymore. And it was only then that I would really appreciate just how tired I was! And that turned out to be true. I was worried that I would never be back to normal because age was catching up to me at the same time (I was 51 back then). I feel all better now! And I bet you will too. Take some time, relax and don't rush things. I imagine that deeper into the summer you'll feel quite a bit better.

Kicks

I had no fatigue with rads at all. I was utterly EXHAUSTED on my 12 weeks of Taxol adjuvant. I started 25 rads the week after last Taxol (started Femara a week after starting Rads). Every day/week after starting rads, the EXHAUSTION from Taxol subsided and not an issue after the 25.

The only issue I had to deal with post rads was the burns after last rad (3/9/10 - 6/29/10). (I was 63 at the time.)

Not all experience the worst that some will say is what will be experienced by every one.

hamiltonheights

Thank you so much. This is really helpful. I think that analogy of carrying a heavy rock is so accurate! I will use that to try and explain it to my friends.

It helps to think that this WILL eventually go away...