The attitude of other people to anyone else's symptoms can be very hurtful.

<not bc story>

I worked for a photographer and my hand was shaking when I was focussing the
enlarger or touching-up prints etc. The boss became more and more critical
and said I wasn't concentrating and I should try harder.

When my brain tumour was discovered he was mortified and did all he could to
make up for his hard words. But why couldn't he believe me when I said I
couldn't help it in the first place? Just because he'd never known me
without a steady hand ...

Sigh ...

Mary

Sorry to hear about your difficulties,  you are 3 months post chemo? It does
take awhile for you to feel 100% but I don't know if LTD will cover this.

One test used to establish baseline mental status is the  mini mental test
http://www.lawandpsychiatry.com/html/mini_mental_status_examination.htm

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There was a good article in the Wall Street Journal a few months back
about chemo brain.  It's reprinted at:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2004/04/06/financia
l1003EDT0050.DTL&type=printable

(That will probably line wrap; if so, you'll have to use cut & paste to
put it in your browser.)

You might want to go to a library & check out the original article -- if
I recall correctly (there's an irony, eh?), I think it had some
brain-scan images illustrating it.

I think Dr. Susan Love's book said you should expect it will take at
least as long to get back to normal after treatment as the time from
your diagnosis until treatment ended.  That is, if you were diagnosed,
had surgery a month later, then started chemo a month post-surgery that
went for 3 months, then had 6 weeks radiation, you'd expect a minimum of
(1 + 1 + 3 + 1.5 = 6.5) months after radiation to get back to normal.

But it took me more like 2 years to get within spitting distance of
normal, and I've heard others say the same thing. (Post-BC
hypothyroidism probably made this slower, in my case, also.)  Moreover,
I've concluded I'm not going to fully recover my cognitive skills.
Don't panic, though:  It does improve significantly!  *Very* significantly.

What helped me progress:  Physical exercise, getting my sleep cycle back
closer to normal (a saga in itself), and (as recommended by friends)
really *exercising* the cognitive skills when feasible.  Examples of
exercising the skills include doing cognitively complex things on your
own (reading difficult material, bringing new organization to family
budgets or investments or the like), playing games that involve memory
or mental manipulation (e.g., Mastermind).  Excellent nutrition and
hydration couldn't hurt, too.

Over time, some coping skills have also developed that I didn't need
previously:  More reliance on lists, routines/rituals for getting things
done or remembering, more single-threading of complex tasks, etc.

As far as how I knew things were improving:  That's a hard one.  I
*know* things are better than during & right after chemo, because I
don't come back later & discover so many boo-boos as I did then, and I
can get difficult things (like my taxes) done more readily.   Sometimes,
though, I wonder whether things are really continuing to improve
gradually, or I'm just getting used to being stupider than before!

It's about 4 years in the past, now, and though it's cope-able at this
point, I definitely don't feel that I'm completely back to my old self
cognitively.  OTOH, that could reflect some cognitive problems that are
really due to chemo-pause and/or the anti-estrogen drugs, rather than
chemo.  Who knows?

For me, chemo brain has been the most troubling BC treatment side
effect.  It kinda hits me where I live, y'know?  However, this feeling
isn't universal:  Some of the women in my RL BC support group feel
similarly, but many/most either weren't troubled by chemo-brain, or it
disappeared fairly quickly for them, as they see it.

Here's hoping you find some strategies that help!  (If so, please share!)

Ann T.
Remove 'dontsendspam' from address to reply by email

Does he know about this study? I don't know how to find it at the NCI -
maybe Tim or GuessWho could look for it for you,
J
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/medical_notes/4596029.stm
The study features in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
It focused on 702 people who had survived following cancer treatment, and
their cancer-free twins.
They argued that comparing cancer survivors with their cancer-free twins
means the increased dysfunction cannot be attributed to the normal aging
process.
They plan a follow-up study comparing survivors who received different
treatments.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/story.jsp?story=643088
Researchers have found that cancer survivors are twice as likely to have
difficulty performing certain mental tasks following treatment as those who
have never had cancer.
The latest study, which compared 702 sets of twins, one half of whom had
had cancer, found long-term cancer survivors were at increased risk. The
twins were selected from the Swedish twin registry and set mental tasks to
perform. By studying twins, the researchers eliminated the influence of
genetic and early childhood causes of cancer and cognitive defects.
This is certainly not a reason for cancer patients to panic and refuse
treatment."