Friday, February 8, 2008

Is extreme fatigue a symptom of cancer, or just what happens during cancer treatment

Is extreme fatigue a symptom of cancer, or just what happens during cancer treatment?
If you have cancer of any kind, would extreme fatigue be a symptom of that? Or are you just severely fatigued once you begin treatment? I know chemo and radiation takes a major toll on the body and that of course causes fatigue, but could you feel that way before you even find out you have cancer?? Thanks in advance.
Cancer - 4 Answers
Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :
1 :
Often you become rundown first by a simple cold or flu, stress, old age - then cancer takes it's opportunity to strike. Happened to relatives.
2 :
Yes you can feel that way. My younger sister was very lethargic for years. Long story short, it turned out she had a very rare form of lung cancer. They had to remove 2/3rds of her right lung, but it got rid of the cancer (the rare type she had did not aggressively spread). It has been 2 years since the surgery (she is now 20) and she is doing pretty good. She does still have some fatigue from missing part of a lung, but she is much better than when she was sick. She still has to get checked every six months, but so far so good! If you are worried you should definitely get it checked out. If the doctor doesn't find anything keep going back to different docs! It saved my sister's life!
3 :
It can be a symptom of both. Then again fatigue can be a symptom of thousands of things.
4 :
Before I was diagnosed with cancer, I got tired more than usual. I didn't think anything of it and just thought I should go to bed earlier. Then I started getting sharp pains in my breast. They say that's not a sign of breast cancer but it was for me. Anyway, yes it can happen. Fatigue can also be caused from a number of other things like stress, depression is a major sign. Many people can be depressed and not realize it at first but the signs will be there and fatigue is one of them. Just not wanting to do anything. Chemo will also cause these signs. It sounds like you already know what chemo does to the body so I won't won't get into that. Another big reason for extreme fatigue could be anemia. Low blood iron will do that as well. So, you need to see a doctor and have some blood work done so they can determine just what's causing this fatigue. Hope you do better and God bless you
5 :
It depends on the type of cancer and how far it's progressed, but yes, you can feel extremely fatigued due to cancer before finding out or starting treatment.



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