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Maree72's avatar
Maree72
Member
10 months ago

1/2 through radiation, and I'm Knackered,

so here I am on week 3 of 6 of this radiation treatment, and I'm so over it!
After my last post on tips and tricks on how to get through and all the updates about my horrible radiation team, like that horrible Dr and Nurse,
I found the courage to put in a formal written complaint to the manager of said clinic.

It was dealt with immediately and with in under 12 hours I had a new Dr and now only see the nurse manager,  and the centre manager makes a point of saying hello and being super helpful

Good out come all round.
But it should have never needed to get to that in the first place.

But now I have discovered I have folliculitis on my chest and neck :neutral: thanks to the radiation - my skin is holding up thank goodness, its only slightly pink, I hope I have not just gone and jinx myself.
My throat is now sore and swallowing is fun, not!
But this fatigue is killing me,
All the things I could do pre cancer, pre chemo and now pre radiation, is like a distance memory, well not really, my mind say yeah we can do this, the body clearly has other ideas.

3 more weeks to go (including this week) then just, maybe just - I can start putting my life back into MY hands and not the medical teams hand who seem to be pulling all the strings.

that's my update.
Happy Hump day everyone :) 


Fatigue
radiotherapy
  • Selkie's avatar
    Selkie
    Member
    10 months ago
    Hi @Maree72 - I also hit the wall about half way through RT. I'm also in Brisbane and was public. My RT centre was only a few hundred metres from the car park but up a hill and the last couple of weeks my car may as well have been on top of Mt Everest. My whole body felt like jelly. My centre gave me access to a physio during treatment and she set me resistance band exercises to do. I'd do them, then be unable to do literally anything else that day.

    It does get better. My fatigue lasted about 4-6 weeks after I finished but then slowly improved. At the 6 week mark I went back to swimming after most of a year out with surgery, chemo, rads. That was interesting at first- did 500m, felt like I was going to die. Little by little I persisted and got back to my old training distance (2km). I was 12 months post treatment in March and did Laps for Life and managed 40km for the month. So there is hope!

    Do you have a partner or friend who can come to treatment with you:? My final week I really couldn't climb Mt Everest to the car so my partner took the week off work and brought the car to me while I parked up on the bus stop bench like lady muck :D I also slacked off on my physio that week. I just couldn't so I didn't force it.
  • Maree72's avatar
    Maree72
    Member
    10 months ago
    Hi @Selkie
    Thanks for your inspo response, 
    Gosh you are amazing with the swimming, that was my biggest thing to get over, was being taken away from the pool.
    So I'm totally looking forward to heading back to the pool too. I had spent the few weeks from chemo ending to rad starting back at the pool trying to build up my strength after everything. totally get how you said a few laps and it felt like you were going to die, Me too - haha crazy, prior to surgery I could do about 10 lengths of the  25mt pool - not no more - I was now in the small pool that they teach the kids in and the physio uses for their clients barely able to do 2 lengths but I was seeing improvements. 
    Guess Ill be back at square one, once I return, but I hope not.

    I'm also public - and my rad centre is like a 20 -25 min drive from home, so I'm quite lucky in that respect, thankfully the parking is free too. 

    Unfortunately my husband is the only one working in the house, so taking time off to drive isn't really an option for us. He was super help over Christmas and new year as that's when I was going through chemo, so he was around to drive me.

    It was so bad last Friday, that I drive the car out of the garage put the roller door down, then sat in the car with the engine running, thinking , where am going again? 
    Then when I got to radiation and into the treatment room, and they asked for my name DOB, it was like i don't know! and this time I did mean it.
    Never thought I wouldn't remember my DOB or my full name :neutral:
    Oh well
    The machine was under a maintenance check this Monday just been, so I have radiation this Saturday, so I'm looking forward to my husband driving me there.
    Then I have 2 more weeks to go - I truly can not wait.

    I've now learnt its ok to nap, I've been doing a bit of that lately, and I've also learnt that 3 activities in one day is to many. 

    So I do what I can, when I can. as madding as it is. 
    I truly look forward to the day I can put this all behind me, and re join the normal world again,
    And well done you on Laps for life, that' truly wonderful and amazing


    Have a great day, "oh will you look at that, its radiation time again" :neutral:
     so I better get going 
    Thank you for taking the time to respond to me with your radiation and how you coped.