Post Radiotherapy Fatigue

[Fika500]

Hello. I had a total hysterectomy with BSO late December followed by 25 days of external beam radiotherapy in March / April. I’m really struggling with fatigue/ low energy levels. Is this normal? I had hoped for sone improvement four and a half months post treatment. I’ve had repeat blood tests to rule out treatable causes of fatigue and no treatable causes were found.

Also my lymphocytes are still below range. My oncology says this can’t be explained by radiotherapy so long after finishing treatment.

Any thoughts/ advice/ shared experiences welcome . Thank you

[Merma Moderator]

Hi there,

I'm so sorry to hear that you are suffering from fatigue months after radiation.

Two things come to mind. The first might sound crazy and counterintuitive since you are fatigued, but have you tried some light exercise (of course, with your physician's approval)? I bring this up because, my doctors have encouraged me to keep up with my exercise and apparently it really did help (I did have to fight thru some fatigue) - even through chemo. SHARE has many online programs: sharecancersupport.org/cale... Maybe you can find one you'd enjoy.

The second thing is - are you getting enough sleep? If you aren't, maybe that's another thing to talk to the doctors about. Worries about cancer and cancer treatment can be disruptive to sleeping.

What are your doctors saying about the lymphocytes? Are any of you other white blood cell counts low?

Best wishes,

Corby

[Fika500 in reply to Merma]

Thank you Corby. I do try to stay as active as possible , knowing that exercise helps reduce fatigue but there have been times when I’ve been unable to do even light exercise. I’ll certainly look at the link.

My sleep varies and I have the odd sleepless night / times I wake up every hour or so but overall it’s not too bad . I was told to expect fatigue after Radiotherapy.. it’s just very challenging as it’s gone on fir so long. I’ll just continue to try to be patient whist keeping as active as possible.

It’s just my lymphocytes which are low. They have gone up from 0.33 to 0.58 .. so changing in the right direction 🤞