I am now on my 5th month of Zoladex.
The usual side effects are present, but I have been thinking about the fatigue, which puzzles me a little.
It doesn't occur every day, and not to the same extent every day. It exaggerates what I think of a "normal" tiredness.
So, some days, I don't have a problem.
Other days I get to about 1:00 pm and really feel that I need an afternoon nap. Sometimes I give in, other times I go out and walk it off quite satisfactorily.
Occasionally, if I try and push through and am doing something that is not immediately engaging (like checking other people's work for my employers) I doze off just sitting there.
There are some obvious factors which kick it off. If I drive for 6 hours in a day - which I did last week - I can handily sleep through any amount of television in the evening.
My real puzzle is how, most of the time, I can push through the fatigue with making it worse. I have an example from last week, when I was taking a few days break in Yorkshire. On one of the days my better half and myself took a trip to Whitby. In order to avoid another round of shopping I took myself off to the Abbey.
To get to the Abbey you can climb the Abbey Steps. There are 200 uneven steps. When I got to the top I was sweating like a pig - or, possibly, there was a pig somewhere complaining of sweating like a Steve.
The really odd thing that I started out at the bottom feeling really exhausted. It was only the fact that the advice here is to work through it that set me on going up. When I got to the top, apart from the whole sweaty thing, I felt much better and good to go.
The reason why it is weird is that I have a disabled daughter for whom fatigue is a principal symptom. If she was tired and forced through it, she would be bed-ridden for days.
Why is it that I felt better after the above?
I am puzzled. If there are bright ideas, I would be glad to hear about them.
This is me thinking aloud. Perhaps there are different mechanisms involved. For most people exercise can release dopamines which make you feel good, also adrenaline can help you achieve more than normal when you are put under stress. These actions have a control mechanism in the brain and maybe for your daughter this control mechanism is not firing properly.
Hello mstev2
An interesting one that.
I have been fighting fatigue for almost 3 years. At the start I decided when I was feeling knackered to plough on and work my way through it. I was tempted to have an afternoon nap but never bothered - until this week. We are in Turkey but have been away from our "home" for a number of days exploring the Lycian Ruins (why do they always build ruins at the top of a hill or make an amphitheatre tall??). After 3 days of up to 15000 steps up and down dale we were back home - after a "light lunch" (no beer) I said to Mrs M "I fancy a doze" - almost 3 hours later, did I feel better for it NO!!
I am going to continue to plough on - I can't answer your question.
Best wishes - Brian.
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Hi Steve (mstev2 ) I don’t understand what happens with fatigue and recovery. I am now on Xtandi on top of Zoladex, so a double whammy, I am definitely feeling more fatigued with the recent addition (5 weeks) of Enzalutamide. Yesterday was such a beautiful Autumn morning and I felt good, so we did a longish walk (about 4 miles) with a few hills, I got home feeling absolutely drained but today am ok and plan to play a gentle doubles tennis this afternoon. Some days going 500 yards is an effort. I used to keep a diary to see if I could relate the fatigue to my 3 monthly jabs, but there appeared to be no correlation after several years recording. I also tried to monitor if it was related to alcohol, Indian/Thai food or exercise but couldn’t see any pattern. My conclusion was that some days you just feel bad so don’t push it or you will suffer. On good days you can push beyond. My rule of thumb now is if I feel rubbish I limit activity and on good days try to do everything normal but do something. Maybe there is some research somewhere into types of fatigue but I haven’t found it. The best advice seems to be listen to your body, David
Best wishes, David
Please remember that I am not medically trained and the above are my personal views.
Hi Millibob ,
Good advice. I try to power through whenever possible, but my current work task is to check what other people are doing/have done, so if I think I am going to make mistakes I will stop and have a doze.
I set the alarm on my phone for a maximum of 20 minutes. It's amazing how the adrenaline caused by the alarm going off and falling off the sofa can wake you up!
I liked what you said about the ruins at the top of the hills. I suspect that they were at the top of a hill to make it easier to discourage uninvited guests by shooting them with something. It is possible that they are ruins dure to the failure of this tactic.
keep walking, keep smiling, and enjoy your break.
Steve
Steve
Changed, but not diminished.
Thank you David2017 .
I have been taking your advice about listening to your body seriously.
If I don't listen the first time, it swears at me.
It is confusing that there seems to be no rhyme or reason.
If I feel fatigue I would expect to feel worse if I excerised, not better.
As Alwayshope says, there may be parts of my brain that are doing something unexpected. It would be unsurprising. Most of my daughter's brain acts out of control. She can be very pro active in explaining it.
Steve
Steve
Changed, but not diminished.
If I feel fatigue I would expect to feel worse if I excerised, not better.
Yep, it's contrary isn't it, but exercise for the fatigue you feel is definitely helpful.
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