@kat7707 It’s certainly understandable to have concerns about brain fog and fatigue which can be associated with your treatment for aggressive B-Cell lymphoma. Especially after your awesome recovery from 2 strokes! That’s no easy feat and you don’t want to feel as though you’ve relapsed from stroke recovery with brain fog again.

From my own experience, I did have fogginess from the chemo for AML and the bone marrow transplant. Caught me by surprise because I’d never heard of it before. So when I struggled finding words I was a bit panicky. Then a friend of my daughter asked me if I’d been having any brain fog. That his mom had it during her cancer journey! Wow, I felt a huge sense of relief at least knowing the cause. The good news was the fog gradually dissipated over the months during recovery. It was never debilitating just a little frustrating. I kept up with memory games, crossword puzzles, sudoku, that type of thing which seemed to help.

Fatigue…whether you have treatment or not, I suspect fatigue will accompany your lymphoma as it progresses. Cancer cells take a lot of our energy along with our bodies trying to fight it. Huge calorie burn. That’s one of the reasons why people lose weight with a cancer diagnosis.
Again from my own experince, once I was beyond treatment, fatigue was replaced by energy and stamina from no longer fighting the cancer. I’m 72 now and very active. I hope this would be the same for you once your lymphoma is in remission. That would be the goal, to return to a relatively normal life.

My concern is, if you don’t have treatment, what is the risk of progression of your disease and how quickly. Would you be willing to trade a few months of fog and fatigue for the possibility of extending your life? Or are you willing to take your chances with the lymphoma without treatment but it may be a shorter time for you? That’s a lot to take in…and a good discussion to have with your healthcare team.
Do you have family or friends with whom you can weigh your options?