Returning to work
I went into work today to give them another certificate for a month off work. I finished chemo 3 weeks ago and was expecting to be able to return this week but am struggling with the fatigue. I ha...
Forum Discussion
All these points. I feel this post so much! "Yes! Exactly! I know!" through the whole thing.primek said:My Dr thinks it is all just about mental health ... They just don't get it. Chemo over so what's the issue?
... the guilt of looking after me is compounded by my thoughts people just think I am making it up.
...in fact gained lots of weight on chemo...so don't look sick. I wore makeup throughout treatment so always had a healthy glow. I guess it's like a hidden disability.
People don't seem to understand that you never fully recover, from immune system to bone strength and little things that hang around and just become these permanent fixtures - like fatigue. I mean, some women spend years in pain after their mastectomies but it's like people have a switch in their brain that goes to labeling your condition as [cancer] or [healthy] but nothing in between.
Honestly, "But you look so healthy" has been my second most hated thing to hear next to "You'll be fine".
It wasn't a head cold, it was cancer treatment and it really is like people struggle to grasp it. Yeah, I've gone up just under 2 dress sizes myself despite doing all the exercise my body would allow and a calorie controlled diet. My GP and oncologist tell me it's really common thing to happen. I think people just haven't adjusted from the horror of up through the 90s when chemo reduced people to skeletal shadows of themselves. I feel like making up a card to hand people who just don't get it so I don't have to explain that it isn't 1999. This idea 'chemo is chemo' and the same for everyone (even though there are extremes of being virtually unaffected to having to put a complete pause on life as you knew it) really annoys me too.
Three weeks after is game! It took me that long to have only almost recovered from a round! I'm sitting here in the middle of week 3 after and struggling to walk because my feet are so swollen. My oncologist told me that after the last one it would take me at least 6 weeks to feel 80% normal. You did exactly the right thing for you. You recover. Eff'm.
I'm sorry I don't have any tips for fatigue management. There's a page on the website with some advice though.