Return to work - physical hardship

I didn’t have this problem, didn’t take leave really, but as @kmakm says, it’s all too common. If you can take one day a week at first that may help. You may also be quite anxious about return and this can easily add to your fatigue. Some counselling about how to best husband your energies may be useful if you can find a good counsellor. Even without fatigue or pain, some good ‘not family’ advice can be very useful as you negotiate whatever your new normal may be. Best wishes. ’ 

Hi Sabrina. I think that what you are experiencing is not unusual. I have not had the opportunity to return to paid employ but I have a household of seven (and two dogs), and once active treatment was over (though for me I would argue that Letrozole is still active treatment) I had to return to work in the house. The bottom line is, I cannot currently do all that I was doing before.

For example on Sunday we all got up early to go out for a Father's Day breakfast for my husband. When we got home everyone sat down but I stood, worked out what I was going to cook for the family's Father's Day dinner for my dad. Then I made the shopping list, shopped, spent the afternoon and early evening preparing the meal (for eleven). This included making a special dessert with my youngest because the day was also her deceased mother's birthday. By the end of the day I was sore from top to toe and comprehensively exhausted. I took a Targin for the high pain levels in my legs and hands, and slept, waking six times that night. The next day I exercised, had a magnesium flakes bath and had to leave everyone to fend for themselves for dinner because I could barely get off the sofa. I didn't feel recovered to my 'new (crappy) normal' until Thursday. It's hard for me to accept these limitations at only 53 but I don't have a choice. I am weakened, but alive. That's the deal with BC treatment.

Our bodies go through a LOT when we have cancer, especially if that includes chemotherapy. It takes years to recover, if ever, and this can be lengthened by adverse reactions to the AI/Tamoxifen if you have to take those.

Broadly, the population understands lumpectomy/mastectomy/chemo/radiation therapy but beyond that, you're understood to be cured and back to 'normal'. I didn't know about peripheral neuropathy before I had BC, or about how chemo destroys your muscles, or the insane array of difficult side effects endocrine therapies can give you. I didn't know that some breast cancers can return years later.

Some people report very accommodating and understanding workplaces for the return to work period. This often seems to depend on if the boss has had close experience of cancer or not.

People just don't get it, not the least ourselves when we first try the resumption of 'normal' life!

@Sister may be able to shed some light on your experience of the workplace after treatment.

So, be kind to yourself. Don't demand or expect too much of yourself too soon. Learn how to pace yourself and read the warning signs that your body gives you. Time. It all takes time.

Biggest of hugs, K xox