July 8-12: 4th full week: fatigue

I've completed 21 out of 25 radiation treatments and 5 out of 6 chemotherapy treatments.  All treatments finish up this coming week.

The fatigue that we chemo patients have been warned about hit me like a ton of bricks.  I felt ok Thursday and Friday, so I decided to swim Friday evening.  My goal was 25 laps, normally I do 45 laps (each lap is 50 yards).  I did 45 laps on both Sunday and Monday.  But on Friday, I was only able to get 20 laps in.  My arm muscles just felt too tired.  I was not out of breath or anything, just tired muscles.

Saturday morning when I woke, my arms felt like I'd just swam a huge workout, like 80 laps.  They were really tired.  This was from swimming.  Every little physical activity I did just wore me out.  In the morning I get the paper, fill a plastic watering can and water a corner of the grass that the sprinkler doesn't hit.  Carrying that water can felt like I was carrying a huge weight.  Walking up the stairs from the driveway back into the house with the paper made me feel tired.

Since I have one more chemo treatment, I am wondering how bad I'll feel next weekend?  I will definitely not exacerbate the situation by swimming!  Until I start to recover, my exercising is over.

Speaking of recovery.  My last radiation is Thursday.  My Radiation Oncologist says that 7 to 10 days after that last day, I will really turn the corner and start to feel better.  I can't wait!  My last chemo is Wednesday, but since the effects of chemo seem to be most intense Thursday evening - Sunday evening for me, I won't count chemo as being finished until next Monday.

On the cramps and constipation front, this week was not bad.  My doctor was quizzing me on my symptoms and what I was taking.  I had started taking a stool softener and stopped taking a laxative.  He said I should not have stopped the laxative.  Sure enough, I took the laxative Wed., Thurs, and Friday mornings and I had almost no cramping issues.  I did have a fair amount of mild nausea, but they'd given us anti-nausea pills when we started chemo and those did the trick.

7-10 days from this Thursday is July 25-28.  I am looking forward to turning that corner.