Fatigue: How bad is it really? What helps?

Posted by cloudybright @cloudybright, Oct 29 8:20am

How bad is your fatigue?
I just want to sleep all the time. . .or nap. I had my second chemo session this week.
Previously, I spent a week in the hospital from a blood infection unrelated to the chemo. But lost a ton of weight and strength.
Now I have no desire to do anything.
What can I do or expect from the near future?

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isadora2021 | @isadora2021 | Oct 30 5:06pm

@cloudybright Such a tough question to answer. In a way I had got “used” to being extremely fatigued when I didn’t know I had cancer. Fatigue was one of the severe symptoms I missed. I put it down to crashing and burning with so much going on in my life for too long.

I pushed through at work when unknown to me the cancer was growing and my body was fighting. I had to with deadlines, and clients and my team depending on me.

I would get into bed as soon as I got home and also spend most of the weekend in bed. In a way when I was diagnosed stage 4 appendix cancer it was a relief to know what was wrong and make a plan to focus on.

Looking back that experience also taught me to push through when I was going through cancer treatments. I kept working to help me push through. I could work from home and my team and clients knew I would take a nap during the day if I needed to.

I worked harder when I felt good whether it was late at night or in the early hours. People got used to my schedule, as did I!!

I had HIPEC + cytoreductive surgery + peritonectomy after 6 months of Folfiri + Avastin. I lost a huge amount of weight being tube fed in ICU and had to put weight back on so I didn’t slide into anorexia.

I had to push myself to eat a lot of small highly nutritious meals over the day (hard boiled eggs, scrambled eggs with mushrooms, almonds, salmon with quinoa and spinach, apple and cheese, chicken thighs, broccoli, hummus and crackers, yoghurt and blueberries etc).

I also slowly built up my walking from around the house to pottering around gardening to up and down the street, to around the block to further afield. I also did Pilates and Yoga and lifted light weights building repetitions.

All I can say to you is push forward in small steps. I visualised each step in eating and walking as a building block to build a good base of good health.

I finished cancer treatment in mid 2022 and have been NED since. It probably took a year to get back to my new normal. I can’t run long distances up and down hills as I used to do but I can now walk them!!

Be kind to your body. Your body is fighting and needs all the help and support you can give it ❤️‍🩹❤️‍🩹