is Radiotherapy/Chemo 'Fog' real

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Hello all,

So husband finished treatment mid February, and yesterday, to simply put it, was the most frightening time of both of our lives.

Husband woke up, went to the loo, sitting on the loo for ages, came out into the bedroom, looked out of the window, shock on his face, 'where are we', omg I was thinking what has happened to him.  He spent the best part of 30 minutes - 45 minutes in tears, trying to control his crying asking loads of questions, all he could remember was our son and myself (not even the dog).  He came downstairs and looked at our new kitchen and asked 'who fitted this' - I responded to all of the questions and was calm and patient.  It really was frightening.  I called my parents who were round within 10 minutes, my husband said 'who is this' - I said it is mum and dad, they are just popping in for a coffee - I just wanted the whole situation to be calm.  Called 111 and they arranged to get an out of hours appointment with the dr at the hospital.  So we sat down had a coffee and slowly husband started to 'come around to normal' - it did take a long while for him to get out of this 'fog' (if that is what it was).  So we went the hospital, dr asked to go to A&E to do some ecg bloods - general obs.  Everything came back ok.  I was then on facebook last night on one of the cancer forums, and I saw this thing about 'fog'.

Husband then couldn't remember the 'fog' stage, he now knows everything, but can't remember the  'fog'.

If anyone has any ideas or experiences, it would be really lovely to hear from you.

Take care y'all xx

  • Hi

    The answer is yes, but what your husband seems to be experiencing in somewhat extreme. 

    I remember saying to my consultant post treatment that I had difficulty remembering things and they really questioned me as to the extent.  In my case they were not concerned.

    Most of us suffer some memory side effects from the RT treatment even though they do their best to avoid damage to the brain (it is rather close to most tumours sites in terms of RT beams etc).

    I do believe that sometimes the trauma of the treatment gives us a form of PTSD and we "shut down" to protect ourselves.  I can barely remember the bad parts of the treatment and recovery, but the better aspects do stick in my brain.

    There is also memory loss caused by underactive thyroid.  Sometimes our thyroids are hit by the RT - mine was and they are still adjusting the thyroxine dose, but as they do my memory (and other symptoms) is improving.

    Speak to his clinical team and seek their advice.

    Peter
    See my profile for more details of my convoluted journey
  • Hi. I agree with Peter , it does seem extreme. I would always run things like this past his oncologist. It may not be fog. 

    Dani 

    Base of tongue cancer. T2N0M0 6 weeks Radiotherapy finished January 2019

    I BLOGGED MY TREATMENT 

    Macmillan Support Line -  0808 808 00 00 7 days a week between 8am-8pm

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  • Stressful time for us, initial diagnosis and unpleasant chemoradiation treatment gives us much to process and deal with , PTSD may also kick in, chemo brain can appear at any stage, your CNS should be able to help you get to the root  cause of any issues, whether it is chemo brain or something else.

    M