Abnormal Fatigue

My husband had the whipple in August 2007.  He is 47.  His cancer was actually ampullary, but they refer to it at pancreatic cancer.  His cancer also metastisized to the lymph nodes.  After gemzar, and taxol, my husband had a petscan in January and it came back not showing any signs of cancer.  Praise God!!  We had a few good weeks and then they started him on his next set of chemo and after one week he started getting sick.  First they said he had pneumonia, then they found 9 small nodules in his lungs.  They thought maybe it was lung cancer but the nodules are decreasing.  They next said he had a strep infection in his lungs and a fungus.  We continue seeing a lung specialist and we have not done any chemo since that first week.  

My concern and question is that he sleeps all the time.  Ex. He got up at 7 am laid back down at 8 am.  I woke him at 2 pm and he is sleeping again and will until 5-6 tonight and then he will be back down again around 8 pm.  He is also vomiting about 1 to 2 times a day.  

I'm starting to get scared that I'm loosing him.  He's not depressed.  He has a lot to look forward to.  If anything he is getting depressed because he can't get well.  Any thoughts?  Am I loosing him? 

Thanks for being there and listening. 

 

is he taking any meds for nausea or pain that would contribute to his fatigue?  There are some meds he could take to help, plus he needs to get up and move.  Exercise is the best treatment.

He is taking 100 mg. 3x a day oxycoton, 5 mg. when needed oxycodone, atavan,klonopin, dexamethazone, an anti-depressant, for his nausea he only takes phenongrin when he goes to bed because he hates how it makes him feel.  He also has a special cream that use to work great but doesn't seem to help this time.  He has zophran and one other I forget.  He has been on most of these meds since the whipple and shortly after when he started his chemo.  He was going to therapy working out but he has just been too sick and too weak.

all of those meds contribute to fatigue and when combined the effect is even greater.  Talk with his doc about getting him off as many as possible.  Ginseng has been shown to help with cancer fatigue, but discuss this with his doc before starting.

My mom has pancreatic cancer that has metastisized to the liver.  No pain meds....only doing organic juicing and organic coffee enemas...along with eating only organic foods.

It has been 4 months since we've known what it was....but over 6 months since we knew it was bad...Dr. took FOREVER...HMO's!!!!

She is very weak, no time to write about it all.  But, I've done a lot of research about symptoms on the internet because the Dr. told us nothing and even said to the contrary to many things I've found over and over again on various website's.

I've found that symptoms of Pancreatic and liver cancer are:  loss of weight and appeite (what we are doing is going well, lots of nutrients in it so I know it has helped); constipation or diarihha (I don't care about spelling right now); coffee enemas help with this; disorientation; lots of sleeping (also this was due to elevated calcium levels due to her condition....zomette (sp?) helps keep that normal; now she has shortness of breath (part of it); changes in personality; depression (these are most common to pancreatic cancer);

My mom has had no chemo or rad...said no point.  But, some of the symptoms you list are the same my mom has.  Although I think with the nutrition we've had her on it has really helped with pain, digestion, etc issues.  If a person is on chemo it is hard to know what the symptoms are from.

I am so sorry.  I understand.  I'm so thankful for God's help and strength.  Without Jesus I don't know how anyone could go through anything like this....it is hard enough without that help.

Thanks for all your information.  My prayers go out to your mother and your family.  This is very painful to watch our loved ones go through.  They did admit my husband to the hospital today.  I am really praying they get to the bottom of this.  His cancer count went down to 39 from 49 in January.  They say this is good but I have not a clue what it means or what are good numbers and bad.  

I wish my husband wasn't on soooo many meds but since the whipple procedure he has been in pain and discomfort.  

 I am praying they come to some conclusion during this stay.  Thanks again with all your help.  

 

 

On 4/4/2008 Mich1031 wrote:

Thanks for all your information.  My prayers go out to your mother and your family.  This is very painful to watch our loved ones go through.  They did admit my husband to the hospital today.  I am really praying they get to the bottom of this.  His cancer count went down to 39 from 49 in January.  They say this is good but I have not a clue what it means or what are good numbers and bad.  

I wish my husband wasn't on soooo many meds but since the whipple procedure he has been in pain and discomfort.  

 I am praying they come to some conclusion during this stay.  Thanks again with all your help.  

 

My husband did not have the surgery, butthe gemzar and then the 5-FU caused severe fatigue. The more chemo he had the more fatigue. He has been off chemosince Jan. 16 and still has spells of extreme fatigue.

He was only on the pain meds and the anti nausea.

God bless you,hang in there.

Jan

 

On 4/4/2008 Mich1031 wrote:

Thanks for all your information.  My prayers go out to your mother and your family.  This is very painful to watch our loved ones go through.  They did admit my husband to the hospital today.  I am really praying they get to the bottom of this.  His cancer count went down to 39 from 49 in January.  They say this is good but I have not a clue what it means or what are good numbers and bad.  

I wish my husband wasn't on soooo many meds but since the whipple procedure he has been in pain and discomfort.  

 I am praying they come to some conclusion during this stay.  Thanks again with all your help.  

 

I forgot to add about the tumor marker-CA 19-9. 39 is good. My husbands went down to 8. They said 11 was normal, but many who have posted have not had numbers that low and are still doing well. After being off chemo for several months my husbands has gone back to 44, but the dr wants to wait to see if the numbers keep going up or if it is stabelizing.

Jan

Jan

Thanks for the information on the tumor marks.  I had no idea.  My husband spent one night in the hospital where they took him off all meds except his oxycoton protonix and anti-depressant.  

While he was in the hospital those 24 hours he did stop vomiting, but as of last night he began again and woke up at 5 am this morning vomiting as well.  He did say he felt like he slept better but he is very scared and we don't know why he keeps getting sick.  

His chemo was in October and November.  Then because of staph and MRSA they did not start his new set again until January.  It was suppose to be 2 weeks on 1 week off with gemzar and xeledo for 6 months.  He only ever did one week and he became sick.  I too am very confused.  On that one week they only gave him the gemzar because they were starting him back gradually.  The first time he tolerated gemzar very well.  So docs didn't think this reaction was from that.  I still have the xeledo sitting on my counter that he never began to take. 

Again thanks for the info.  Any additional thoughts would be appreciated.

Sincerely,

Michele