Where's My Remote?

My mom has had breast cancer twice and underwent large amounts of chemo along with a stem cell transplant back in 1998. In the last 5-6 years we have noticed a steady decline in her cognitive function as well as her motor function. She has difficulty finding words, it seems that she has almost no memory and she has difficulty walking and getting up and down. She needs help with almost all aspects of everyday life. We have taken her to numerous doctors without any answers. Has anyone else experienced/heard of anything like this? We are at a complete loss for what to do. We keep being told that it is from the chemo and that there is nothing we can do about it. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Yes, it does. After dx we are using all our brain cells just to wrap our heads around the dx and figure out how to deal with all this.

I'm participating in a study of chemo brain, and I did several tests of memory and coordination before I started chemo. Now that I'm almost done with treatment, I'll need to go back in and repeat the tests, then again another six months later. Although I don't have hilarious stories to contribute to this thread yet (just give me time), I am a little apprehensive about the test because I can tell that my mind is not quite what it used to be. I must write absolutely everything down, and I often struggle for the right word (very irritating when you're a crossword puzzle fan like me!).

chemo moment, one story out of many. my friend drove me to work during one of my treatments. after work i went to the employee garage to get into my car. i went through all five floors looking for that dang car!! i called secruity freaking out. they started looking for the car. by then i needed a serious xantax. i finally decided to call my friend to let her know. she is laughing hysterically because she is parked outside my job waiting for me. that was two months ago, and i am still teased constantly.

Did you see the NY Time article, where they saythat chemo brain can be caused by many things, including but not limited to chemo?  I had first breast cancer in 1995, with a lumpectomy followed by radiation--no chemo.  I felt fine, but noticed my post-menopausetype symptoms of memory loss and ADD-like inability to focus got much worse.

Then I began having weird, body-traveling symptoms in the Fall of 2005--went from specialist to specialist but I wasn't in anybody's special category, so no one could diagnose...in the meantime, in December 2005, I had to write a complex govt RFP contract proposal, and I COULD NOT DO IT--couldn't multi-task (used to be my mainstay) at all.  E.g., if I stopped typing to let the dog out, I could be found in the yard triming bushes...  I also could no longer synthesize, boil things down to their essence--e.g., this rambling email. The more I wrote, the longer and more disconnected the proposal became. I missed 3 deadlines--a total government No No for proposals, and finally had to drive to another state to hand-deliver the darn thing at 3 a.m.--Though we won the contract anyway, because we're the best at what we do (she said modestly).

Six months after that disaster I went to the ER for the 2nd time in 10 days;  CT scans  diagnosed Stage IV metastatic.

Now can anyone tell me this wasn't chemo brain?  It can be caused by post-traumatic stress syndrome, and pre-traumatic stress, and

stress-traumatic posts, if you ask me.