Heart issues

Hi - I’m 3 months post radiotherapy and 6 months post surgery . I have had terrible fatigue since radiotherapy and although I started to improve after about 5 weeks I then went for a short bike ride one day and that seemed to set me back a long way. I’ve still not recovered and can do very little . I’ve also realised that my heart rate is doing strange things. It drops quite low (40) from time to time, but also gets quite elevated (up to 200) when I do very little. Putting on my socks and I’m at 140. My blood tests don’t show anything like anaemia , and I’m waiting to do a 24 hr ecg. Just wondering if anyone has experienced similar ? Thanks

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Hi Shaz, I am 8 months post mastectomy and five months post radiotherapy. In between I managed a little cycling. About three weeks after RT I started to have black out sensations along with spiking HR and BP and palpitations. I had scans and a heart echo all normal. They did stop the tamoxifen which I had been taking for about six weeks. Since then the fatigue has been horrendous. I spent the next two months sleeping a lot and unable to do much. Slowly the HR spikes settled and palpitations disappeared. My energy has been slow to return. I found that any exercise set me back too. So I’ve reduced any exercise to short sessions. No more than 30 mins. And have done a lot of meditation and cold water all of which has helped. But I have been struggling. I did not anticipate this level and duration of fatigue. I thought I would have been back to work and usual exercise routine by now. I’ve stopped setting deadlines around returning to work or certain activities and just do little bits regularly throughout the week.

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So sorry to hear you’ve experienced similar :confused: I think it’s made harder by the fact we weren’t prepared and / or expecting it could be like this .

I’m glad to hear you’re starting to improve a bit - heart wise at least.

I’ve a 24 hr ecg next week and a conversation with my oncologist 10 days later so I’m hoping something will show up that can be managed.

In the meantime I’ll take your advice on cold water and mindfulness x

Hello,

In 2019 I had radiotherapy and was advised I would have a shadow on my lung, I noticed for years I get out of breath in cold,hot weather climbing back up Box Hill never again, even on a excercise machine at a gym,

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