(This is pretty much a cross-post from the breastcancer.org board, so for those of you who go to both, my apologies for being repetitive):
My daughter is handling her chemo (weekly Taxol, daily Lapatinib) well so far - just a few sniffles, dizzy spells, a bit of a headache. Her spirits are good and she's back to riding her horses, but she's concerned about her inability to focus. I told her it was early yet; she should see how she does in the next week or so. But it's a problem for her because she's doing her doctorate, in her second year of the PhD program in English at Boston College, and her minor exam is scheduled for the first week in December. She has to stay enrolled or she loses her medical insurance. BC has been wonderfully accommodating, letting her follow an independent study course that exempts her from classes and teaching, but she does have to keep up with the work.
We're getting her an iPad and I've found some "brain-training" software for her -- a good friend of mine had chemo for ovarian cancer some years ago and kept her mind sharp with Nintendo and Brain Age, so I'm looking at equivalents. Does anyone have any other advice?
I think the riding is good, as it will keep her fit and get the oxygen to her brain; the kind of riding she does (dressage) can also be intellectually taxing (which is why our trainer despaired of me; I was going through menopause at the time). She sounds fine to me on the phone, but she's driven and a perfectionist, and I know how thick I felt with "static brain" during menopause, so I can imagine how she's feeling.
Any and all suggestions welcome. Thanks.
