Radiotherapy and exercise

Different people find side effects different. I had incredible fatigue during radiotherapy, including in the month following it.

I also followed the advice of trying to exercise but I had some pretty scary experiences. Ended up having to take my partner out walking with me in case my legs buckled under me and I ended up sitting on the footpath having to use all my willpower to stand up again.

However, I'd been through months of adjuvant chemo between mastectomy and rads so the cumulative effects may have caught up with me. 

I went back to my usual exercise (swimming) about 6 weeks after. Took about 2 months to get to my old distance of 2km each day. This year I've upped the ante and am swimming about 3.5km/day, including 76km during March to raise money for new breast cancer treatments. 

Which is to say- don't sweat it if you find yourself too exhausted to do much during and immediately after rads. You may find you're all good, in which case power on. If not, your energy levels will come back in time and you may just find you're tougher than you were before going through this particular marathon.

Good luck with rads.💜