Sunday, February 10, 2008

A quick note about fatigue

I find myself thinking and talking about my experience with my GBM less and less (and actually, I'm happy with that). However one thing is a constant reminder of my recent past. 

It's been about 8 months since my chemo ended, and although I feel pretty great most of the time, I'm still being nagged by fatigue. It continues to be a unwelcome companion, and although I do my best to counteract it. I find it still seems to be sticking with me. I looked up FATIGUE and this is a good general description.

Then I looked up POST CHEMO FATIGUE and this is a fair explanation. There is also an additional issue called CHEMO BRAIN. Although these are all reasonable descriptions for the problem, I'm not especially reassured, that for me, this will soon pass into history. I try to stay active, and at times I do particularly well. I play racquetball with my 22 year-old son twice a week, in what you might consider a very competitive activity. I do very well, but I find that I can't sustain for more than 90 minutes this like I used to. Other times, just simple tasks around our home wear me out. This is the most disturbing part. The highs and lows do not balance out. I weigh more, not less, than I should, and so far, my diet and exercise patterns have not had much of an impact. Making changes to suit my erratic energy level has made little difference.

I haven't given up by any means, but I have too many irons in the fire to be patient waiting for this fatigue to pass. Let's face it... none of us are getting any younger. (Laughing) Among other things, I still haven't learned to snowboard, and at 57, I don't think my timetable has much slack in it.

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