extream fatigue

My mother finished her radiation treatments the end of April. It has been nearly five months and still no energy level. She sleeps all day and night and still no appetite. She had a very rare thyroid cancer and a very tough time. Her blood checked out good and the cancer is gone. What is causing this fatigue or is this normal?

Hi ,

I think extreme fatigue is a side effect of the radiotherapy. For myself I suffered for a long time afterward. I wish your mother well. Sleep can be a great healer and her body has taken a bashing from the treatment, if her bloods are okay then it will just take time for her to get better. Also everyone is different and some people take longer to heal than others. Hope things improve soon,

Noreen

Unfortunately, extreme fatigue is a side effect of cancer and treatment. You might ask her doctor if she can take one of the ADD drugs, like Adderall, which comes in a generic form, to give her energy. It will help for short periods of time at least.

HI my name is Tony am so sorry for what your momis going thru , i have been having the same problem , i think what it is is that your moms adrenal glands are not prodcing the bodys natural steroids which in normal cases makes all of us be able to function propally , mine started when my prednison was cut off , talk to your oncologist about this and they should do a test and then put you on some kind of steroid and this should take care of the fatigue

On 9/30/2008 wildwood wrote:

My mother finished her radiation treatments the end of April. It has been nearly five months and still no energy level. She sleeps all day and night and still no appetite. She had a very rare thyroid cancer and a very tough time. Her blood checked out good and the cancer is gone. What is causing this fatigue or is this normal?

 

HI my name is Tony am so sorry for what your momis going thru , i have been having the same problem , i think what it is is that your moms adrenal glands are not prodcing the bodys natural steroids which in normal cases makes all of us be able to function propally , mine started when my prednison was cut off , talk to your oncologist about this and they should do a test and then put you on some kind of steroid and this should take care of the fatigue

On 9/30/2008 wildwood wrote:

My mother finished her radiation treatments the end of April. It has been nearly five months and still no energy level. She sleeps all day and night and still no appetite. She had a very rare thyroid cancer and a very tough time. Her blood checked out good and the cancer is gone. What is causing this fatigue or is this normal?

 

HI my name is Tony am so sorry for what your momis going thru , i have been having the same problem , i think what it is is that your moms adrenal glands are not prodcing the bodys natural steroids which in normal cases makes all of us be able to function propally , mine started when my prednison was cut off , talk to your oncologist about this and they should do a test and then put you on some kind of steroid and this should take care of the fatigue

On 9/30/2008 wildwood wrote:

My mother finished her radiation treatments the end of April. It has been nearly five months and still no energy level. She sleeps all day and night and still no appetite. She had a very rare thyroid cancer and a very tough time. Her blood checked out good and the cancer is gone. What is causing this fatigue or is this normal?

 

My husband also has extreme fatigue.  He's 59 and has had radiation, chemo and the back of his throat reconstructed and a part of his tongue removed.  It's been 6 weeks since surgery and he's up and feeling pretty good about an hour a day now.  The doctor thought perhaps the radiation could have damaged his thyroid which could cause the tiredness but they checked it and it's fine.  So I'm just concluding it's all part of what he's been through.

 Hopefully your mom will start getting some energy back soon.  But at least the good thing is when they are resting they aren't in pain, so that's how I try to look at it.

Take care and God bless.

Sheila

Let her sleep as long as she needs.  She had extremely toxic treatments, necessarily so to kill the cancer.  These drugs can stay in her system for years!  She will know when she can or cannot do things.  Her energy level will return, it's as individual as each person,  Even so, her oncologist should be kept up to date with her progress on the fatigue.  Good Luck to your Mom and to you!