Chemo Brain

I start the new chemo next Tuesday and radiation treatments the following Wed. Next week is going to be big.

Its frustrating and worrisome. Names and words I normally could recall have to be researched. Its like Swiss cheese. There are odd holes in my memory.

I used to be able to recall native and common landscape plants easily. Many I still can recall but plant names I really should recall, I can't. I can recall their ecology and my experience with them, but not their name. What do you call the little white bugs that attacked my hibiscus? I know that spraying diluted soap or detergent on the plant gets rid of them.

Writing this blog I can either find another word or phrase or google to find the word I want. I have been told that around 6 months after chemo stops, the chemo fog should lift. However, difficulty multi-tasking, organizing and concentrating started before chemo. It could be an effect of the cancer and now combined with chemo. Word loss became significant after chemo started.

Now I write everything down. When I first left the hospital with my handful of pills my bedside journal recorded dates and times I took each medication. It really helps to have Charley with me on doctor visits. He remembers.

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/MBC/content/MBC_2_3x_Chemobrain.asp

I wish I knew how long these cancers were developing. I new understand that sarcoma is often mistaken for a sports injury. I spent a lot of time in confusion and pain thinking it was my arthritic knee. Then I read the stories of Adult Bone Cancer Survivors. Some people had back pain or other pains for years before discovering the cancer! Often their cancers were not high value (aggressive) like mine. I would have been dead if I had waited much longer. I am sure of that.

http://www.abc-survivors.net/