chicagoetc
10-04-2008, 04:17 PM
This is an update / inquiry into delayed effects of chemotherapy. The question is: Can one of the chemo's in AC+T affect brain functioning?
There is already at least one discussion on this board pertaining to the effects of treatment on cognition. Hopefully this will get you there:
http://her2support.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=33598&highlight=memory+focus+attention+cognitive
I finished chemo (AC + T) at the end of May. I had worked basically fulltime through everything starting with a diagnosis in July of 2007. I'm on Herceptin but had expected memory/multi-tasking/other similar problems to decrease or stop. But they didn't. In mid-June I was interviewing someone, taking notes on a computer and, all of a sudden, because very nauseous. I had to quit the interview. Since then I haven't been able to do this, or not yet.
Besides the nauseousness, memory and other task related problems became worse. They had been there before but not in the same way. I told my oncologist who sent me to a neurologist who sent me to a psychologist for neuropsych testing.
[In the meantime I had to drop back to half-time work as it became harder and I became less effective.]
Results of the neuropsych testing: I don't have a memory problem. I have a cognitive one, probably related to chemo, specifically on focus/attention. It's not stress/anxiety. It's not hormones. It's not depression. It's something about how my brain works now (hopefully not forever). It affects memory. If I can't focus then I'm not going to remember things. [E.g. if someone is talking and I lose track of the conversation, I may not remember what was said earlier.]
I'm not complaining. God has been good to me. It's just a surprise and something that needs more treatment/attention.
I wonder if some of the memory problems related to "chemo brain" could possibly be similar to others here? [Or maybe we are just all different.] And if so, from what chemical?
Melanie
PS: It's all a bit disorienting for me. It doesn't help that I'm having followup reconstructive surgery soon.
There is already at least one discussion on this board pertaining to the effects of treatment on cognition. Hopefully this will get you there:
http://her2support.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=33598&highlight=memory+focus+attention+cognitive
I finished chemo (AC + T) at the end of May. I had worked basically fulltime through everything starting with a diagnosis in July of 2007. I'm on Herceptin but had expected memory/multi-tasking/other similar problems to decrease or stop. But they didn't. In mid-June I was interviewing someone, taking notes on a computer and, all of a sudden, because very nauseous. I had to quit the interview. Since then I haven't been able to do this, or not yet.
Besides the nauseousness, memory and other task related problems became worse. They had been there before but not in the same way. I told my oncologist who sent me to a neurologist who sent me to a psychologist for neuropsych testing.
[In the meantime I had to drop back to half-time work as it became harder and I became less effective.]
Results of the neuropsych testing: I don't have a memory problem. I have a cognitive one, probably related to chemo, specifically on focus/attention. It's not stress/anxiety. It's not hormones. It's not depression. It's something about how my brain works now (hopefully not forever). It affects memory. If I can't focus then I'm not going to remember things. [E.g. if someone is talking and I lose track of the conversation, I may not remember what was said earlier.]
I'm not complaining. God has been good to me. It's just a surprise and something that needs more treatment/attention.
I wonder if some of the memory problems related to "chemo brain" could possibly be similar to others here? [Or maybe we are just all different.] And if so, from what chemical?
Melanie
PS: It's all a bit disorienting for me. It doesn't help that I'm having followup reconstructive surgery soon.