chemo and fatigue?

Question

My father has lung cancer and has had chemo and radiation for 3 months.He had his final chemo about a month ago. He has had a lot of other things go wrong since then, Diabetes, Extremely low blood pressure, Blood transfusion, Dehydration and a lung infection. It was only after his last two doses of chemo (wich were very strong ) that he has experienced extreme fatigue and loss of energy. We were just wondering how long he should expect the tiredness to last. Thanks.

Answer 1

Wow tough question. It depends on whether the fatigue is from the treatment or from the cancer. If it is from the treatment your dad may never get back to his old energy level but he should feel as fully recovered as possible after about 1 to 2 months. He should check to see if his hemoglobin is low, if so that can make a person very tired because he is not getting enough oxygen to his tissues. There are medications like procrit that can help increase your hemaglobin or he may need a blood transfusion if too low. If it is not low the next best thing to do for fatigue is aerobic exercise. But sometimes the person is feeling so poorly that this is not possible, but even a brisk walk every day if possible will help, by helping circulation again because your red blood cells carry your oxygen and if you exercise this helps you to get more oxygen to your tissues. Lung Cancer of course also effects your lungs, I am guessing he gets his oxygen level checked very often if he has had all that cancer treatment, is his oxygen saturation low? If so he may need to be on oxygen. But with lung cancer it could just be the disease process itself. I would make sure and let him know you love him, and help him get his affairs in order.

Answer 2

It's hard to say. A lot of it depends on his age and overall health. Dehydration often leads to low blood pressure, so encourage him to drink plenty of water or juices that aren't loaded with sugars (which should help some with the diabetes too)

Try to get him on a balanced diet and doing daily activities. Chemo can wear a person down and the only real way to come back from it, is to eat healthy and to start with light to moderate activity. He doesn't have to hit the gym, but taking short walks and such would probably help him a lot.

Answer 3

well to be honest it can last the rest of his life...my mom just got over with chemo about 2 and a half months ago. and she still has side affects..i have also read a lot on fatigue and such things and in all the books and from what her doctor told me is that all the side affects can last their whole life..but it all depends on how the body takes it.

Answer 4

ok sugar is out you might need to increase his salt intake to up the blood pressure till his blood pressure gets up he will still fell tired my mom just had 32 rounds of chemo and her blood pressure did the same thing we increased the salt and red meats bloos pressure was back to normal in about a week she is doing great now doing everything she wonts to .

Answer 5

Chemotherapy definately has the side effects of fatigue. I would honestly suggest that try an acupuncturist/herbalist to try and lessen the side effects!