Yes but they have rubber on the blades.

Hi Tristeve,

it took Martin months to get his energy and stamina back. But what started his recovery was his daily walks up and down the steep High street. He'd drive to the town, then walk all the way down to the bottom (1/2 mile), then back up to the top with a break to chat to his friend the security guard in the Pound Shop, then up to the top where he had a Latte as a reward. The street is a big hill so the return was quite challenging! He could hardly do it at first and was breathless, but after a few days and weeks of this he noticed improvement.
You could borrow a dog if you don't have one and take it for a walk. The consultant told us, walk walk walk and walk and your energy will come back, don't forget your water bottle though. After a couple of months you'll be able to cycle.
Cecilia

Hi, Forum,
I was diagnosed with oral cancer in May, and had surgery on my tongue and lymph glands right away. I spent the summer going through radiation and chemotherapy. I have never smoked in my life, had an occasional glass of wine in the evenings, and was negative for the HPV. Go figure! This has been the hardest thing that I have ever done. I had never been in the hospital except to give birth, and was rarely sick. I am back to work now, but still have problems eating and with fatigue. I am also going to physical therapy for my shoulder on the side where I had the surgery. I am having my PEG tube removed on Friday (yea!)that will make getting dressed a lot easier.

Hello Steve..and Zenga,

I myself suffered for well over 16 months with fatigue and weakness after rads/chemo and surgery. My medical team had chalked it up to CRF (cancer related fatigue) and I took that as what I suffered from. My quality of life was horrible, I was an extremely active person before cancer (athlete, wrestler/grappler/boxing runner, weight lifting etc) and most days I could barely get out of bed. I started going to physical therapy but found the 15 minutes a day would put me down for days on end. I tried several methods to overcome the physical fatigue and weakness (dosing oxy, energy shots, etc..) and had some results but nothing sustaining to get me back to my old self.

I recently stopped using my opiate pain medication and low and behold, my energy levels went way up and I started to return to myself again. I was on fentanyl, transdermal patch for pain and dialed as high as 200mcg/hr but had gotten down to 50mcg/hr when I quit. The thing with the transdermal patch is it is actually activated by heat. The hotter your body tempature or the hotter the patch gets the more medication released into your system. Of course you won't feel this immediately...but you will feel it the day after and for a prolonged period of time as the meds pass through your skin into your blood stream.

Opiates, especially fentanyl, cause fatigue, weakness, depression among other nasty side effects. It is great for pain and has a purpose, but also doesn't come without a price.

If you are still on pain meds this may be your issue. Also CRF could still be the cause. For me I lived with the crf explanation...and when I got off the fentanyl it all came clear to me.

hope it helped, good luck and keep your spirits up

Eric

Hi, and welcome to the group. I was diagnosed in March, so I am 2 months past where you are. I did not have surgery, but I have just over the last coule of weeks gotten to where I can eat most thing well. My jaw still gets tired from chewing, and my mouth does not open very far.
I lost a lot of strength and stamina. I have begun taking longer and longer walks to build back up.
It takes a while, give it time.

Welcome, Tristeve. I too had difficulty swallowing thin liquids. My speech therapist suggested a product called "Thickit" available in most drugstores. Give water the consistency of nectar and doesn't taste terrible. May help as you really need to keep swallowing stuff or the muscles forget how.

Have any of you had problems with numbness in your feet? I was told that could be a side effect of the chemo. My Dr. said that I may have it for a while.

That is so coincidental! I saw my oncologist yesterday. He said the nunmbess was due to the chemo.
I am 10 weeks post tx and have experienced numbess in my hands and feet. It was very bothersom a month ago and has gotten quite a bit better but I still have numbness in my feet.
BTW I hax 8x cisplatin and eubutrex

Steve

Has anyone else had this, and, if so, how have you relieved it? My Dr. basically said I might have it for a while, and there wasn't much I could do about it. I do try to prop up my feet when I can, and that seems to help somewhat.

Thats an unusual side effect. It happens to me too. I never connected it with my cancer treatments.