Extreme Fatigue - 10-30-2002 07:14 AM
Hi group,
To those of you who are 1+ years post-treatment, did any of suffer from extreme fatigue? Having gone through cancer and it's treatments with my husband, I've witnessed the fatigue of radiation and chemo. But my mother seems to be "more fatigued" than what seems usual with the treatments. And what bothers me is that it is affecting decisions she needs to make about further treatments. She is scheduled for her neck dissection next week. Despite my passing along the group's experiences about the dissections and the fact that it's probably easier than the radiation, she is looking at it as a "step backwards" in terms of something else to recover from. I suggested she look at it as a "step forward" in terms of being sure that all the cancer is being removed.
Now, I know there are two things contributing to her fatigue. I'm sure one is "psychological" and at her age, I can't change the way she looks at things. However, the second thing is that she is anemic. I've done some reading on this and it's apparent that this is affecting her fatigue level. She started with Procrit shots after her chemo then was switched to Aranesp, which only requires a shot every two weeks. However, her hemoglobin has only gone from 9.7 to 10.8 in two months. They say that it should be in the 12-14
range.
Have any of had problems with anemia and what did you do to combat this? Do you feel it is inappropriate for me to raise these questions to the doctor? I just feel that if she felt better, her attitude and approach do this would greatly improve.
Thanks in advance for your insight.
Cynthia
To those of you who are 1+ years post-treatment, did any of suffer from extreme fatigue? Having gone through cancer and it's treatments with my husband, I've witnessed the fatigue of radiation and chemo. But my mother seems to be "more fatigued" than what seems usual with the treatments. And what bothers me is that it is affecting decisions she needs to make about further treatments. She is scheduled for her neck dissection next week. Despite my passing along the group's experiences about the dissections and the fact that it's probably easier than the radiation, she is looking at it as a "step backwards" in terms of something else to recover from. I suggested she look at it as a "step forward" in terms of being sure that all the cancer is being removed.
Now, I know there are two things contributing to her fatigue. I'm sure one is "psychological" and at her age, I can't change the way she looks at things. However, the second thing is that she is anemic. I've done some reading on this and it's apparent that this is affecting her fatigue level. She started with Procrit shots after her chemo then was switched to Aranesp, which only requires a shot every two weeks. However, her hemoglobin has only gone from 9.7 to 10.8 in two months. They say that it should be in the 12-14
range.
Have any of had problems with anemia and what did you do to combat this? Do you feel it is inappropriate for me to raise these questions to the doctor? I just feel that if she felt better, her attitude and approach do this would greatly improve.
Thanks in advance for your insight.
Cynthia