thanks, gary, for anticipating this post in your reply to my update about my sister!

she's experiencing a lot of anxiety. as her physical energy has gone up a little, her emotional state has gotten way worse. a large part of this has to do with the fact that the pain has increased in the surgery bed, and her doctor is not sure that chemo's been having the results he'd hoped for. we did a ct scan on friday and going for second opinion to usc/norris on wednesday. because of the long weekend, we don't have the scan reading yet, so things are in limbo and the uncertainty is quite taxing.

but even before this, she was swinging between depression and anxiety. i've talked to her oncologist and he'll arrange for a psychiatrist to visit my sister when she goes back to hospital this week for chemo. she's reluctant about the idea because she has previously had a difficult experience with psychothropic medications. so i'm not sure how open she might be to taking medication. add to this that she can't talk much to express herself and things get way more complex.

she's lost her motivation to do any of the stuff that kept her busy and up before. we're trying anything we can think of these days, but she doesn't even want her friends to visit her or take part in family activities she loved before. i've been trying to get her to view this board and read people's posts about their experiences and pulling through these times, but have had no success yet. she's generally withdrawn, and this is so out of character for her.

i'm really interested to know what other people's experiences have been with depression and anxiety while in treattment, and what strategies they might have adopted. i'm also wondering about any counter effects of chemo and psychothropic drugs.

good thougts, healing and peace.

gita

Gita,

I had some of what your sister is experiencing. Part of this is normal for the disease. I felt so defective and so alone because I had "cancer" that I didn't want to be in with other people telling me everything would be alright when they had no idea if everything would be alright.

I know it's scary for you to see her so out of character, but this is something many never have to deal with. Part of the grieving process is withdrawal. I'm not real sure of how long to give her before she is pushed into different forms of therapy. I tried one anti-depressant and it kept me up at night. I took myself off of it and then began to see light at the end of the tunnel. I still have my days, but they are just days now and not weeks.

I hope that helps. God Bless the caregiver!
Lynn

Gita,

Unfortunately that withdrawal part is pretty much on course for what I went through. I rarely left the house during treatment partly because my counts were down and I didn't want to risk infection, partly because I felt so bad and didn't feel like being around other people.

I pushed myself to work too early and that forced me to be around more people but it was really difficult because my work involved being out of town all week long. I spent the weekends trying to recover.

I am a bit out of treatment now but some days I just feel a little overwhelmed by it all, wondering if the new strange things are permanent or just cycling through.

I hope this helps.

Ed

thanks for the feedback, lynn and ed. it helps greatly because i know depression and anxiety are part of the process and unavoidable for most people and the experiences are similar. it seems to me, however, that these states of mind inhibit the treatment to some extent and intensify their harshness and difficulties emotioanlly. at least for my sister (most likely for others too), this is taking so much of her energy. so i wonder about the strategies for dealing with anxiety and depression and the ways that caregivers can help, short of pushing the person into psychiatric treatment. i dont' know if i'm making any sense here because these things are so individualized. perhaps all we can do is to be there for when she needs us. but i'm afraid that if she stays in this state for too long it'll be more difficult to come out of it.

good thoughts, healing and peace.

gita