Questions for the RT guys out there

Did any you experience extreme fatigue, minor confusion, and loss of short term memory? And if so, when the did the symptoms begin and about how long after onset, did they subside?

Thank you!

Almost at the halfway point!

I started experiencing severe fatigue from the third week. It lasted until about 4 weeks after rad ended. The mental fatigue was worse than physical. I started going to work early because early morning was the only time I felt normal. Try to take walks, etc if you can - it seemed to help.
All my best
Jeff

My husband experienced none of those things through nine weeks of radiation. In fact, he said he felt better than usual, and I think that was because the biggest stress for him was making the treatment decision. Once he started radiation he was relieved.

Best of luck to your husband!

Juliet

I went through 7 weeks of SRT at just under 3 months following surgery. I did have some fatigue starting at about the 5-6 week mark and it probably continued for 4-8 weeks following. The only other SE that I experienced was a little urgency issue that occurred about week 6 and lasted 3-4 weeks.

Mentally I many have become a little edgy at times but I don't recall any memory issues. Ooops, maybe that was short term issues and I just didn't know it. LOL

I knew when the edginess was around though because my wife would lovingly refer to me as "Radiation Randy". When she called me that I would know that it was time to rethink whatever I was saying. The gentle reminder from her helped.

Best to you guys,

Sonny

I had the fatigue starting about 3 weeks in and lasting for about 2 months after. I didn't really have memory issues but I did have a number of emotional/mental weirdnesses - not quite sure how to categorize them. There were times I couldn't figure out what I was suppose to do on even simple tasks. Like one day when the battery in my car died. I've handled that a million times but that day I had no clue what to do. I ended up calling my wife who had to remind me what to do - call the auto club (so simple but I had no clue that day). The whole thing was so upsetting I ended up taking the day off work. I ended up having a bit of a breakdown by the time I managed to get home and was very close to asking my wife to just come and pick me up.

I also started having problems sleeping and by the end of treatment some depression. Exercise helped some but the sleep got to be such a problem the doc put me on sleeping pills for a week. That helped get my sleep cycles a bit more normal.

RT and PC does weird things to the mind and emotions. If it gets too bad talk to the RO.

Hang on you're almost there.
All the best,
Andrew

Worry... I had a little fatigue from the radiation but the HT gave me joint pain and memory loss as well as lack of concentration. I still have the joint pain some and memory loss but probably from the HT. With me the fatigue went away a few days after radiation.

Thanks everyone!

InTheShop, you sort of nailed what I was referring to as "memory issues."

He has treatment in the morning and by lunch, he is really struggling to stay awake. He will nap from 1-4 and is usually looking for the bed at 8PM.

Chemo didn't knock him down this bad, with the exception of the third day after... then he was right back at work. For RT, we are away from home so work is not an issue... thank goodness.

Sort of thinking that RT on the heels of chemo might be what's causing the extreme fatigue. His body really didn't have much time to recover between the two treatments.

Already using immodium daily and getting up twice a night to urinate.

The Rad Onc did say 24 hour urinary urgency will likely begin soon.

Aside from that, the one thing we do get a chuckle about, is that he doesn't dare try to pass gas in front of me. :)

Thanks a bunch everyone!

I Have a neighbor who would walk his dog I front of my house every day. We would talk when we saw each other. We were Dx'd last year At the same time with the same Gleason. Unfortunitly his had spread to bones. He had two rounds of chemo and now doing IMRT. Today I saw him for the first time in weeks. He talked about memory loss with lots of fatigue now. He said to me that combination of treatments is very hard on him. My treatments were a walk in the park compared to his. Just goes to show we are all different.
Good luck to you and your husband.
Bertb

None for me.

Somebody said...
(replace this text with what was said)Did any you experience extreme fatigue, minor confusion, and loss of short term memory?