from what i have heard (looked into this a lot when my brother went thru it for a different severe illness) ... many things contribute to it

(1) The TRAUMA of the illness and treatments

(2) The STRESS

(3) The inability to get the proper NUTRITION and VITAMINS at times

(4) MEDICATIONS ...

I have found that if I look back to times in my life where I was under a lot of stress (parents illness / death - my illnesses etc) there are periods during each of these where my brain is foggy and I think it is because i was on autopilot at the time and too stressed for my body to have enough ammo to both function as a body and to process info into long term memory as well so it took the living portion as the most important and left my mind a blank ... i guess it made the right choice but i sure miss my mind ... smile

PS: Did you hear that one of the big names in medical journals have now said 2 studies have shown that CHEMO brain is not a reality? They say they have shown in these studies that it is the stress of hearing you have cancer that causes the CHEMO BRAIN and not the chemo itself... of course no one agrees with them that has experienced it, but this is their claim to make you feel better about chem (did it help? LOL)

Last edited by azcallin; 11-30-2008 05:03 PM.
Rita - Age 44
wife, mother of 4 - ages 3,16,21,24 & grandma to 1
(R upper) Maxillectomy 8/8/08 - UW / Seattle, WA.

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"Those who think by the inch and speak by the yard, should be kicked by the foot."