Disability pension

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  • Brenda5
    Brenda5 Member Posts: 2,423 ✭
    It's mostly the chemo brain memory thing. It never recovered. I could not tell you what i did yesterday or what netflix show i watched even. I have to write every thing down in a note book as I will forget it. I tried to learn a song lyrics and didnt want this chemo brain to win. It took me two weeks to learn the first line! A win for me, since I can still remember it. I havent learned the second line yet lol. I would love to do a course of some sort or uni or a small business but if it takes two weeks to learn one line of song lyrics I haven't got a hope doing a course.
  • Afraser
    Afraser Member Posts: 4,450 ✭
    I suspect most people have no idea of the severity of the condition, or that chemo brain is not always a temporary affliction. I dreaded it even for a few months (and was OK) but it's hit and miss. Most people get their hair back, but not everyone - at least not always in a functional way.  No-one having chemo needs to be scared more than they usually are, at the outset anyway, but  maybe long lasting impacts have to be renamed for what they are - conditions that severely limit your options and capacity, no matter how hard you may try to overcome it and not "just" a chemo side effect. Same with lymphoedema - mine is OK but Brenda's is another limiting factor and is unlikely to spontaneously improve. If you cured something by removing a limb, the disability would be clear and obvious.
  • Zoffiel
    Zoffiel Member Posts: 3,374 ✭
  • Brenda5
    Brenda5 Member Posts: 2,423 ✭
    I hear you. It is like I have a brain that's gone from Windows 10 down to commodore 64 and dial up. It's just so frustrating and at first it really upset me but now I know that one day I will be completed with the Tamoxifen and hopefully cancer free for decades. I just hope the brain cells straighten up and fly right.
  • primek
    primek Member Posts: 5,392 ✭
    @Brenda5 Have they considered swapping you to an aramatose inhibitor instead of tamoxifen to see if your memory improves?
  • Brenda5
    Brenda5 Member Posts: 2,423 ✭
    edited August 2017
    No not yet. He said 2 years on Tamoxifen. Last appointment he seemed to have forgotten that and was tossing up 5 or 10 years. I think male oncologists should have to take a couple months of Tamoxifen before they practice. My GP also seems to think its all a big joke. He's wierd.
    Nearly missed an invite to the neighbors today. Thank goodness I remembered the invitation long enough to get home and put it on the calendar where my husband remembered for me because 24 hours later I had totally and utterly forgotten. 
  • Vicki_S
    Vicki_S Member Posts: 2 ✭
    Hi Brenda, centrelink is such a painful process. I have just applied for sickness benefit as i have not worked since March. As I've heard getting a disp pension is impossible, tho if you're a drug addict that is classed as a dissabilty because they can't get jobs?? arrrhh :s
    Can you get a low income health care card? big savings like discounted rego, power bills etc. Is better than nothing   :)
    I recently saw a natropath to help me get over chemo and get me fighting fit for THE BIG surgery, very glad I did!! She wants to see me after the surgery to help with my anxiety and depression.
  • melclarity
    melclarity Member Posts: 3,531 ✭
    @Vicki_S I agree with you, a visit to the Naturopath was a major turning point in my recovery from Chemo, I would never have thought!!! so worth a consult. xx 

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