One year on

Hi Gemmary , you are only 7 weeks post chemo - you will be tired as you are now in recovery.

The accumulative effects of chemo will take time to leave your body - Fatigue is indeed a post treatment hurdle that has to be worked through. As you work though the recovery of your strength your mental ability will recover as well.

Make a cup of tea and have a look at this great paper......... take few notes and come back with your thoughts. The paper highlights the milestones in the post treatment journey.

Yes I know that paper very well, and recon I'm just out of convalescence  and starting recuperation, but not being able to do things is bugging me.

Totally understand.

I remember coming out of hospital in a wheelchair and having physiotherapy every week to get me back on my feet - it was so frustrating. Took 4 months before I was aloud to drive again. This was all down to Fatigue - both physical and mental......... that was over 4 years back now.... it does get better but you do need to allow your body to heal.

From my long experience....... its all about setting small achievable goals and when you achieve them give yourself a reward as you deserve it. Then you move on to another set of achievable goals.

The completion of your treatment is the foundations - now it's brick by brick.

Site Admin put one of my Life after Cancer posts onto the Community News Board a few months back - I like mental pictures and where I live there are no limits to these pictures....... follow this LINK and see what you think..... and it saves me typing it.

Yes I get that, and try and do that..... on good days I can try and set mini goals, though I do have a tendency to over estimate what I can do. On bad days I just accept doing anything at all is better than nothing.

I perhaps should add that the LAR was the 4th major operation in 2 years. I couldn't move my hip and finally got a replacement. It was magic. Then they condemned both my knees, so 2 knee replacements followed. Just starting to plan 2019, get fit etc. Then wham.

So I don't really know which way is up, still doing physio for the hip, but struggling to get fit, and trying to put the last 3 years behind me. Difficult. Trying to assess the new me after cancer, but cannot.

Sorry to hear the struggles you have been having....... and a big yes to setting goals that are not achievable.

I'm never surprised to hear how folks just like yourself develop 'other' medical issues on the back of an initial diagnosis.

Getting back on your feet is both physically and mental is an important part of the post treatment journey...... have you sat with someone face to face and unpacked everything......... for the past 4 years I have been visiting our local Maggie’s Centre, not that I was struggling but it is good to talk one on one........ and more so since I have been helping on the Community.

The initial counselor let me down twice, badly, when I was really struggling with the death of my f in l. Current one is ok, but I am not used to talking about myself! I think I will run out of sessions before getting somewhere. One trick I'm trying is to call chemo another op, and if I get too ambitious on a good day, just say to myself its only 7 weeks post op. Sort of works. But after a real op you feel quite good at 7 weeks, not like this.

The educated bleach (chemo) can mess your head up big time.

Between late 2013 and October 2015 I must have had 850hrs of chemo all together - the final one put me in ICU for a few days......thought I was having a heart attack.......  it took a good 12 months to say that I was clear of the chemical effects of the chemo and be able to think straight as well as not suffer from chemo brain.

I had very bad short term memory......useful at times I have to admit when I felt I needed to have a pity me party........ but my amazing and long suffering wife had none of it - and just keep delivering tough love to make sure I was looking at the greater good in all this x