Fatigue still after finishing treatments 14 monthsc ago

Hi

Welcome to the online community. Sorry to hear you are suffering from fatigue and that it's worrying you. Have you been given any help to overcome your fatigue? I know the situation is very different at the moment - but I had help from the physiotherapy team when I found I was suffering after treatment. Fatigue is quite a common issue though some of my medical team were sceptical of the truth of that. Anecdotally, it seems to affect a lot of us and that old-fashioned notion of convalescence is useful - we've been through huge physical and emotional trauma and it takes time to recover. The most useful things for me were learning to pace myself - I tended to do too much or too little and had to accept it would take time to regain the energy levels I'd had previously.

I was also asked to keep a fatigue diary and that was really helpful - I was given a sheet of paper with a line for each hour of the day and asked to rate my energy/fatigue level in one column and my activity in another. Got to be honest, I didn't record every single hour, I grouped them into chunks but it did highlight the things that were making me feel drained and the things that gave me more energy. It was quite different to the story I would have told so was useful in showing me where to make changes. 

All of this was 3 years ago and I still feel the fatigue sometimes, but I know how to deal with it now and I start gently following the steps again until I feel better. 

Having said all of that - it's possible low energy could be from something else - like low nutrient levels etc - so you should try to have a discussion with your GP - they'll be able to reassure you.

Hope it improves soon

R

Thank you for your response R. I should see my GP but don't really want to because of Covid, I'm being very careful as I was obviously shielded when Covid broke out. I just couldn't be ill again right now, plus I'm 73 years old so at greater risk. 

I'm still getting hot flushes too which I've had since before my ops in Jan and March 2019. I'm on Anastrozole which is known to give you flushes, they are difficult to deal with too. As soon as I start doing any housework or cooking it brings them on. It's like a viscous circle. Get them through the night too but I have sleeping tablets (Zopiclone) for that which I only take if I've had more than two sleepless nights. 

I'll start keeping a diary asd you suggest to see where that leads. I do go for a walk daily, almost, and feel better after fresh air and exercise but need to walk further. I'm managing about 3000 steps on a good day. I used to walk the dog 8000 steps before. Alas we lost him 16 months ago, just before i started radio. 

P

sounds like you're doing all the right things. I'm pretty sure your GP would do a phone consultation though maybe want bloods done to see if there were any deficiencies. if you can get that done at your surgery, you'd probably feel pretty safe - from what I hear GPs are monitoring patients who visit . 

You might also want to take a look at the Walking Back to Happiness thread we have over in the breast cancer group - it's a place where we post walks or exercise we've done with photos of views etc to help motivate each other. You'd be sure to get a warm welcome there!

So sorry to hear about the loss of your dog - that's always hard.

R