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LP020406's avatar
LP020406
Member
2 hours ago

Post-treatment Tired and can't afford to be

Hi there,

I am a 60 year old who has had a pretty-easy, early-invasive BC journey: Small, ER+, PR+, HER-; Lumpectomy with clear margins; 2 lymph nodes taken but uninvolved; Axillar seroma drained; 15 fractions of RT; Maybe some early lymphodema in breast, Letrozole from diagnosis through RT but then told I would not benefit much from it (0.6% benefit in reduced recurrence rates) and discontinued it due to side effects.

I am 4 months post-surgery and 6 weeks post-RT, and have been off Letrazole for a month or more. I am back at clerical work (work from home) full-time now, after working back up gradually, and I am stuffed!

I can barely get out of bed in the morning, and if I can stay upright in my seat and keep my brain focussed, by the end of the day I am completely useless. Rad Onc says the fatigue should not be RT related at this point.

Now I feel like I should be able to just "snap out of it" but that's totally beyond me and I just want to cry and sleep.

(For transparency, I should maybe admit (& remember for my own benefit) that since my initial biopsy my husband and I have organised a son's engagement party, done a road trip and purchased a home 1500 km away, organised renovations and done 2 more trips to keep tabs on the works, watched 2nd son sworn in as a cop, and seen no. 1 son marry. Maybe that's part of the fatigue ...along with the panic over working full-time, decluttering/downsizing, packing and moving in 3 months.) Maybe my problem is actually a dose of insanity...? šŸ¤Ŗ

Can anyone with a similar, "straightforward" BC journey share whether their "normal" returned and how long it took?

Thanks for "listening".

coping
emotions
post-treatment
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1 Reply

  • Moomincorn's avatar
    Moomincorn
    Member
    1 hour ago

    LP020406ā€‹ You've achieved a lot in a short space of time! :) No wonder you're exhausted!

    But in all seriousness.. we all recover in different ways. 

    I was still fatigued 6 weeks after radiation and medical people were telling me my tiredness could be due to the radiation, that I was still healing. I would get through the work day but then I would crash.

    Have you had any blood tests after radiation?  I had a blood test and found my iron storage had completely and utterly tanked. There's various bits of research suggesting that can happen with radiation. 6 months after radiation my iron storage was still struggling so I'm now taking iron every day (rather than every second) hoping that when I get it checked again next month it will be better. 

    8 months after radiation I'm still sleeping at least an hour more than I did before radiation though that might now be due to the medication.

    I'm still waiting for "normal" to return but overall I have much more energy than I did in the first few months after radiation.

    I've got quite good at prioritising - some things don't need to be done at all and others can definitely wait :) 

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