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For the HT "brethren", fatigue and driving....

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Posted 9/9/2015 5:48 PM (GMT 0)
Our hormone therapy has lots of side effects and fatigue is frequently mentioned as a big one. It is for me.

This is probably obvious to everyone else, but for me it was a recent revelation. Lack-of-sleep/fatigue slows reaction times. News? No. But in the context of driving I hadn't really thought about this. There's also a phenomenon of "visuomotor slowing", but it may be really the same thing. Visuomotor is the fancy term for physically responding to visual stimuli.

Anyway, about a month ago we had a fairly minor accident on our motorcycle (low-sided trying to emergency stop coming into a freeway construction backup just over a low hill). It bewildered me what had happened, since my memory of those milliseconds just before braking for all I was worth is a bit hazy. It seems like even though it was an emergency situation stopping should have been possible. I practice hard stops a lot, but it didn't happen. We're fine (well, my wife's broken rib is just about healed), bike's fine, our riding gear is a bit torn up but that's what it's for.

My wife a couple of times has called stopping traffic to my attention when I can see brake lights, but just not reacting. Sheesh. We talked about it last night when I had this revelation, and she mentioned those incidents had kind of concerned her. I said it feels like I'm half in the bag all the time anyway, but had not considered the added risk it's imposing on driving!

So, if anyone else is noticing this, or even not, if you're experiencing hormone-therapy-induced fatigue leave yourself extra following distance when driving anything. Keep in mind whatever you're doing that your reaction times may be slower than you are used to. I've always tried to leave about a 2 second gap, but I'm trying to push that up to 3-4 seconds now.
Posted 9/9/2015 6:34 PM (GMT 0)
I know it is controversial but I attribute vitamin D-3 to why I do not suffer from fatigue even though my T <20 and has been for over 30 months.

It's not the amount of vitamin D-3 one ingests with vitamin K-2 and calcium but rather the amount one retains which is measured by a serum D 25-OH blood test.
Posted 9/9/2015 7:01 PM (GMT 0)
How does one get a D 25-OH blood test? That's not part of a standard blood panel, at least it doesn't sound familiar.
Posted 9/9/2015 7:15 PM (GMT 0)
I have mentioned this before in a few posts I have made, but it seems relevant to mention it again. Especially in view of the topic of this thread.

When I was getting IMRT (45 sessions over 9 weeks) as my treatment back in 2012, I did indeed notice toward the end (a few weeks to go) that the fatigue factor caused by the RT was indeed getting to be something that I really needed to start thinking about.

For many this is a natural side effect of getting radiation, especially, as noted, toward the end of treatment. For me, the fatigue was becoming more and more noticeable, and was there as I was continuing to drive myself to and from the RT sessions (half-hour drive each way).

I could have said to myself at that time, "Well, it's just a little fatigue, I can handle it, I'm a good driver." But then something in the back of my mind told me, "Don't risk it. Get one of the boys (my sons) to chauffer you to and from the remaining sessions. That's the smart way to go."

And that's what I did. My sons alternated in driving me to and from RT for the last few weeks of the scheduled treatment. And you know what? I'm very glad I asked them to do it, which they did it, because it substantially reduced the chances of my getting into a possibly bad accident, whatever those chances were had I gone on driving myself.

My point is that if you think your driving skill may be becoming impaired, then it's likely that it is. That well could have been happening in my case. Solution? Get someone else to do the driving (wife, kid, etc.) as I did.

Consider it as a kind of insurance against a possibly very bad outcome if you do otherwise.
Posted 9/9/2015 8:11 PM (GMT 0)
Good post. I am a bit tired these days. I have been on Lupron for over 4 years. Wife asked me to start taking Lexapro for anxiety and bad moods. So I think that has actually helped and it makes me sleep much better. I can get up in the middle of the night, pee, take my zytiga and go back to sleep in a few minutes. I can also take an afternoon nap at home whereas before I could not do that. This thread has me wondering if it is affecting my driving.

Scary thing is that on Monday, an oncoming driver crossed the center line headed toward us and my wife was driving. Instead of hitting the brakes and pulling over, she blew the horn! She said this is "her lane". I doubt if they heard the horn being 100+ yards away and approaching us. But it did keep me awake LOL. I will keep driving myself and be very careful.
Posted 9/9/2015 8:14 PM (GMT 0)
Good advice. My wonderful wife drove me to and from all of my radiation treatments, and it was a great help. I could even nap in the car on the way back to work.

I finished radiation Aug 28, 2013, 2 years ago now (!). My HT is an ongoing thing, and it's likely to be some time yet before I'm off of it and beginning to recover. One more shot in November, and then "recovery" to begin after it expires 4 months later.

When we drive up north (it's a Michigan thing) for about a 3 hour trip, she takes over driving about 1/2 way. That's about the limit of my stamina, as by then the yawns are beginning and the inattentiveness starts to manifest. When she takes over I'll conk out almost right away for an hour or more. She can't drive our bike, so that's all on me and has really curtailed our riding.
Posted 9/9/2015 8:47 PM (GMT 0)

Redwing57 said...
How does one get a D 25-OH blood test? That's not part of a standard blood panel, at least it doesn't sound familiar.

/www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003569.htm

Jerry, one thing I forgot to mention was that insurance sometimes only covers the vitamin D test every 90 days.

Karen and I are looking forward to seeing you and Connie and the rest of the GFMPH crew. We start the trek north in 12 days
Posted 9/9/2015 9:04 PM (GMT 0)
My radiation oncologist gave me a prescription for a 1 hour daily nap every afternoon for 3 years after the end of my radiation therapy. It has been 2 years and I am still taking that 1 hour nap. In a year I will try cutting it back to the original 1/2 hour. I break the 700 mile trip from Detroit to upstate NY into 2 days of 350 miles driving so as to remain relatively safe on the roads. You just have to compensate a bit. I am really looking forward to having some energy back someday though.....

After 2 years & 7 months of ADT, I must report a measure of cognitive impairment. Not bad, just occasional memory snags, miscalculations and the like...nothing really serious.

The pituitary gland is supposed to produce human growth hormone in response to chemical signals from your muscles when you use them. With ADT that doesn't happen. If the pituitary is not producing HGH then brain level housecleaning is not getting done either as that is another chore that is done at the prompting of the presence of HGH in the blood stream. Another small part of the price of therapy.
Posted 9/9/2015 9:37 PM (GMT 0)
Jerry:

I know exactly what you mean ... I was driving 'Up North' last week visiting my Dad. I used to have more problems, now my one doctor has got me on a mix of Cymbalta, Wellbutrin, and Adderall ... I do pretty well until the evening when i have to stop so that i can sleep. cool

Exercising seems to keep my energy up as well... And i'm on the weekly Vit D2; throw everything at it right?

Ray
Posted 9/13/2015 4:40 PM (GMT 0)
Another minor "incident". We were driving home last night from a family birthday party. Pretty long day, quite a bit of activity, and it was about 10pm (way past my bed time, sadly).

As I'm driving along, my wife suddenly says "Where are you going?". I had blithely blown by the entrance to our complex, rather unaware of where I even was. When she asked, I had no answer! I was just driving, seemingly zoned out although there wasn't any sensation of anything amiss. It would have been apparent pretty soon that I'd missed the entrance, but the lack of situational awareness was very surprising.

Sigh. Be careful out there...
Posted 9/13/2015 10:35 PM (GMT 0)
RedWing, I have had those moments too...My "nap time" is between 3 and 5 pm..If I'm driving at that time, especially interstate type driving, I have learned to pop a couple of "energy pills" (caffeine) to stay alert..Once, back in the day, I thought it was impossible for me to fall asleep while driving but not any more....
Posted 9/13/2015 11:17 PM (GMT 0)
Let's just say that my sleeping pattern improved once Mr.WW SOLD the bike! :)

Also, once we started flying to Oncologist's appointments. The brakes on my side don't work. :)
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