why do I still feel rotten

Hi , I would firstly say, give yourself a break! It's only been 5wks, 3 of those the chemo was still doing its thing, assuming you were having 3 weekly doses!! If so it's been JUST 2 weeks of healing time!! That's not very long when you consider what your body has just been through in the last 6+months!!

So maybe it's time to relax! Maybe do some gentle exercising! If you are working it might be a good time to take a break. Allow yourself time to heal. Once the radiotherapy starts the fatigue might well get worse! Depends how good your hospital is. It's only a short appointment each time BUT that's only if machines work well, just one machine breaking down can cause a knock on effect. So be prepared you might have to wait around, some people are really lucky and they breeze through rads! Let's hope you do

As for the weight loss that's not good, nor is not eating. Have you spoken to your oncologist about the nausea. They can give you tablets that will help. If not the onco try your GP! But please don't leave it too long. Without food your body won't have energy hence the fatigue!! I think a visit to your GP to discuss things would be a great idea!!

Good Luck with the rads Hun! Let us know how you are getting on! Sal xxx

Evening

Sorry to to read you are still feeling wiped out post chemo. This is very common as during chemo a lot of your good cells get wiped out too and it takes quite a while for those to recover to normal levels. About 3 - 6 months is about the average for full recovery.

You may have to tweak your diet to try and get some calories on board as you are trying to recover while running on empty. You don't have to eat lots, just make sure to 'up' the proteins like having butter instead of low fat spread - Cream instead of milk to mash or other meals etc

I would contact your onco unit as feeling nauseous this far on is a bit uncommon - are you on any other medication that could be causing this like anti oestrogen tablets ?

Fatigue can also have other causes - Have you had a blood test to check for Anaemia or oxygen levels (sats) Worse case scenario is a blood clot which can cause breathlessness but you don't mention this symptom.

Hope this is of some help, hopefully someone else who has had experience of this could help further ?

G n' J

Thank you for your reply.  I should give myself a break, you’re right. I have been anxious that because I think I’m naturally lazy, I can’t work out what’s real and probably have been forcing too much too soon. I’m seeing my oncologist on Thursday so will discuss the nausea symptoms then. It really helps to have someone tell me to be kind to myself. I don’t hear that at home much. Thank you. 

Hi there,

Just to add that my hospital pharmacist said that it takes about 2 months for chemo to clear your system, then after that a further 6 months or so to more or less recover. I asked her if that meant that the chemo was still working for those two months, and she said to some extent she supposed so. I guess that's why it becomes cumulative, as several cycles of chemo are clearing at the same time!

Thank you for passing your pharmacist’s wise words onto me. I will try to be more patient from now on.