As I’ve mentioned before, things haven’t gone quite to plan and I’ve started hormone therapy for my prostate cancer, with radiotherapy to start on a couple of weeks, still with a curative goal.
There are quite a lot of potential side effects from the hormone treatment, one of which is brain fog. I’d been bumbling along quite happily thinking it was a breeze so far* until this morning when I found myself in the boulangerie, staring at a handful of coins with absolutely no clue how to get to €1.80 out of what I had. I ended up just holding out my hand and saying take what you need. Normally, I could just about do it blindfold just by the feel if the coins I’m suddenly feeling very old
Anyway, it looks like it’s going to be fun fun fun.
*The side effects really start kicking in after 3 or 4 weeks so we’ll see how that all goes.
For what it’s worth John one of my closest pals, we’ve been close since school, was diagnosed with severe prostrate cancer in 2013, it was pretty advanced and the outcome very uncertain. He underwent hormone and radiotherapy treatment and I’m delighted to say he’s now as fit as a fiddle. We watched the Ireland England match together last week in my local village.
Indeed. I was quite curious as to what people meant by brain fog and I assumed it was things like forgetting a word, which I can do very well already, so this was quite surprising.
I experienced a similar sort of thing during my chemotherapy treatment for Lymphoma. One develops strategies for dealing with the matter such as proffering a €5 note, or sorting out a €2 coin or two before leaving the house with said coins held tightly in one’s hand.
The main thing is not to worry about it as I can assure you that it will pass with time.
Be positive, concentrate on what you can do, and try and laugh when a temporary problem rears its head.
I have a mate who is currently on very similar hormone treatment for the same problem. He has learnt to manage the side effects and continues to live life to the full. His treatment is working very well by the way.
Just stay positive John. All will be well. These things just take time and it’s a bit, shall we say ‘inconvenient’, but in a year or so you will be able to say that cancer is something you had, but don’t have anymore.
I know very well all about the mental anguish that comes with cancer, so if you would like to discuss anything privately with someone who has been there, had the T shirt, and worn holes in it, do feel free to PM me.
Thanks. So far, I’m dealing with it ok as I tend to be quite pragmatic and just deal with what comes along. I’m also not too egotistic and can laugh at myself in such situations rather than stress over it. I just gave a shrug and said it was my medication
Not really panic, but that can be a reaction to the Brain Fog.
It’s more like being temporarily unable to do simple mental arithmetic that you know very well you can actually do. It’s forgetting where things are in the house, or being unsure how to spell everyday words or change the batteries in the TV remote. It’s frustrating and disconcerting, and also a bit frightening if one starts to think that it could be permanent. Once the treatment stops it goes away.
I have now adapted, but when I started on my once a week chemotherapy drug I lost 2 days to fog each week. Often I really couldn’t tell you anything about those days afterwards.
Be kind to yourself, don’t try to plan anything incredibly challenging, drinks lots of water and rest properly.
Welcome to my world @JohnH , pretty sure you are a good deal younger than me (83) and I am well used to this nowadays, in fact I quite enjoy the care that people take with me when I unashamedly play it up a bit.
Pretty sure that for you this will be temporary, so welcome back full health when it arrives, and use this as useful practise for much later.
I have a good friend who had prostate cancer around a decade ago, and talked about struggling with brain fog. He was at that time MD of a vaccine development company and it was particularly distressing for him being in such a pivotal place. But he kept going, AFAIK is in full remission and is still MD.
I’ve done the same thing with coins more than once….in tbat case I just said can you take the right money as I haven’t got my spectaclea. And tbey did.
However I was pretty sure they’d have thought it was because I’m English or older than them, anyway, even if I hadn’t mumbled the truth about the spectscles.
JohnH, my husband took part in a trial of a particular pattern of radiotherapy years ago at Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton - he was diagnosed while in Croydon for a holiday when a doctor decided he needed testing for diabetes and I asked if he could have a PSA as well. His trial involved 3 weeks of daily visits (except weekends) for radiotherapy and he has been all-clear ever since. He gets a phone call every year to see how many years he has survived, currently 12. He had the hormone treatment leading up to the radiotherapy, but I don’t recall whether he was more foggy than usual. Be aware that they now design the radiotherapy site, dosage and duration to suit your particular cancer size and position, so you may not have exactly the same experience as anyone else. Philip had gold grains inserted as guides for the technician, a friend understood his gold grains were radioactive and part of the treatment. Lots of different options. Best wishes.
Thanks. I’m way past that and this is salvage radiotherapy to catch whatever was left behind following surgery. I sometimes wonder if I should have gone that route but they do say that hindsight is the only exact science so I don’t dwell on it.
I’m suddenly feeling very old 
