… for anyone looking for hope of getting back to normal …
i was expecting to get back to normal the day after treatment finished - no such luck
then i was very disappointed that after a month i didn’t feel THAT great - after the mother of all periods, the ill relative and the stinking cold
well - 2 months after finishing it’s a very different story
now have far better energy levels and can get loads more done and have even started to lose weight - slowly
and I overcame the cold naturally - only with the odd paracetamol
in fact - there has been a bigger improvement his month than the first month
I have also had some time off work - which has helped a lot as I have been working since dx throughout all treatment (almost 1 year) - (op, 6 mnths chemo, 33 radio)
it’s just so great not to be doing everything through a fog!
good luck everyone - keep going with your chin up if you’re still ploughing through the brown stuff
I agree. It’s so wonderful to have a clear brain, relatively,again. Must admit my memory seems shot to pieces, but I cope if I write things down!
It can be frustrating that first month after rads, when you would really like to pick up where you left off. But our bodies have come through a lot, so we have to learn to be patient ( not easy! ) and gradually increase the amount we do.
I have loads of housework to catch up with, my OH not being the type to notice the cobwebs, but I’m finding I can only do a little bit every other day. Maybe I’m going out window-shopping too much!!
Can’t wait for Winter to be over and get outside in the garden or out for a walk.
I felt very frustrated during radiotherapy as my onc assured me that it was nothing and I could recover within one week afterwards.BY three months on after finishing
treatment I felt better than I had felt in the last ten years(physically I mean,psychologically and emotionally it is taking me longer to recover)not knowing how long I
have is inspiring me to stop putting things off until some mythical time in the future ,but to do whatever I can now ,including enjoying myself without feeling guilty that i
should be doing more for others.
I also find it easier to concentrate in some ways,like learning new things,but strangely my memory is unpredictable,sometimes works,sometimes doesn’t!!!
So for everyone who is on the long slog through surgery,chemo and radio,keep going and hold on to the hope of feeling a lot better afterwards.
Glad to hear you’re feeling good…and that the fog can lift! I’m about 6 weeks after you in terms of treatment, and only just realising (that’s how thick I am) what a big bite this thing takes out of us. Aged 12 years in 12 months.
Or that’s what it feels like.
Last onc I saw said “L, one day you’ll wake up and you’ll feel like yourself again. And it may take a while, but you’ll get there.”
And I have faith in that statement, and I’m 80% there already.
So to all those popping out of the end of the treatment tunnel - stay cool, be patient and good luck!
Well it’s nice to see this thread just now.
Finished my rads yesterday and find myself wide awake doing ‘the night shift’!
Got that stinking cold you had, FB!! So, wishing I could feel a lot better!
Seems like for me the rads fatigue is nowhere near as dreadful as the post chemo pit I was in. But I have learned that it will probably be slow progress, and that it doesn’t always go in a straight line.
Good luck to everyone…here’s to getting our lives back, and hopefully for a very long time to come!
I am half way through my FEC and have my last on the 10th Feb and am hoping to go back to work at the beginning of March with my back wound healed, boob settled and a teeny fuzz of hair. I am desparately hoping I will be up to it physically. At this point in the journey, and I don’t think helped by winter, it feels an incredibly long dark road and something approaching physical normality seems a lost dream.
I have certainly learned, I will never ever take feeling well for granted again. I never (and I hope to God I wont) want to feel like this again and for so long.
Thanks for the pointing to the light at the end of the tunnel, x
What an inspiring thread.
I can remember reading some of your postings about six weeks ago Fizbix and you sounded quite down. Wow what a differance. SO pleased you are feeling better mentally and physically. Long may it continue.