Chemo brain

You can listen to a taped interview about this subject on the cancercare website as well.

I was chemophobic prior to having CAF, not because of losing my hair or being sick or the typical reasons, but because I was so concerned with the question of what does chemo do to the brain? (Particularly Adriamycin, since it is so hard on the heart.) My internist didn't have the answer and suggested that I could see a psychiatrist and perhaps be tested prior to chemo and after. When I asked my onc, he shrugged it off, saying that in his entire career of 30 years he had only seen maybe 5 or 6 who had severe brain effects. My first thought was, well, how many had maybe not-quite-so-severe brain effects???

I paid $250 to have a private psychiatrist do the best she could to test some cognitive functions. I could not afford to have the tests done again after chemo and basically was told that as a 51-year-old there was nothing that those results could really be compared to since "as we age we all have more memory problems, etc."

I know chemo may be welcome in some circumstances, but as a stage 1 survivor who should have been given more information and who might have chosen not to take chemo, I think it is professionally irresponsible that it is taking so long to acknowledge the concerns that patients have about this. Why does it take so long to listen to complaints that are SO common....