Cancer Related Fatigue

Please never take this video down. I've watched it 100 times as a reminder. I am 5 years out of my cancer treatment and some days I am overwhelmed with fatigue. This video is here to remind me that what I am experiencing is part of my journey. Thank you.

For two years, I have tried to keep going. I mowed the lawn and did gardening everyday! I go shopping and have painted rooms and decks. The fatigue truly knocks me down everyday at 1pm. I am Stage lll breast cancer. I am short of breath. Worries my family and friends. No one truly knows what this fatigue feels like except those who experience it. I just try to pace myself daily.

WOW! People took this video so well, judging by the nice comments. Initially I was like: "Great....one more thing I'm responsible for!!"..... LOL! But from there, I went to feeling empowered to know that I dont have to take the fatigue, and that I can " fight" it with the very thing is trying to keep me from doing, which is...Activity! Thanks Doc!

At least I don’t feel alone! I had chemo/ rads/surgeries. The problem it doesn’t address is people who just can’t pace or bank their energy. Eg - me. 3 little kids - they don’t run on my schedule, I run on theirs. We need money. Like money for food and mortgage. When I look at my daytimer I have an anxiety attack because there is nowhere in there to fit in a break. I went for help and was told that every 2 hours I need to take a small break. As an example I go from appointments to bus stop to after school snacks to activities to making supper, getting baby from daycare, to supper, to packing lunches, and the bedtime process. There is honestly no break. I think there needs to be a plan for moms. A couple of very long stressful and full days I had an energy drink (I know-they are poison) and I got everything done, that’s not a long term solution. I do exercise. I do go for walks. It’s not getting better. I am so fatigued. Then frantic 🤯, then I can’t focus and make mistakes all over the place (like messing up school pick up time, I look so foolish, kids late for school - not even their fault and they have to do the walk of shame from the office with their late slip), then I can’t even hold a conversation without forgetting what we were talking about. Then I check out - I’m a zombie. My house gets messy, my kids can’t find clean clothes in the laundry baskets lined up but not put away (this morning no one could find underpants 😳). I just need magic.

This video started off well, and then descended into the common rhetoric I've heard from several cancer doctors. Listen, if you've never felt "cancer fatigue," yourself, you honestly can have NO idea what it's really like. Imagine having mononucleosis for TWO YEARS straight! Yeah, it's not in my head, and it's not down to attitudes or behaviors. I'm a published novelist and a pro musician. I practice both crafts every single day, and I love life, and I'm fairly disciplined. But, cancer fatigue doesn't care about your behaviors and attitudes, and it's not some jovial sketched character standing by a tree. It is a debilitating sense of having no energy, and worried that you won't be able to complete tasks that you start. So, DocMikeEvans, I appreciate the effort, but in the end you've just put another spin on what cancer fatigue really is, and in my eyes, you're another doctor telling me to buck up and improve my attitude.

Thanks for this video. I'm 3 months into year-long clinical trial for advanced melanoma and at 38, I have been feeling a bit robbed of life lately. Fatigue has definitely set in and I am having a harder and harder time motivating myself to get out bed, get some exercise, and make healthy food choices. At the beginning of the trial, a colleague who went through intensive treatment himself said "Push yourself every day to get up and get moving, even when you don't feel like it." Until a couple weeks ago, I felt he had gone through something worse than me because I felt fine for the most part. And then fatigue hit. And now I WISH I had developed those healthy habits from the beginning: perhaps now those habits would be seeing me through when I otherwise want to lie in bed all day. SO, my piece of advice for anyone/everyone looking at an initial diagnosis: work on developing healthy habits IMMEDIATELY. It WILL get harder so do as much as you can in the beginning.

Sooo true.....I have stage 4 breast cancer and feel exhausted all the time.......I can sleep 10 hours and wake up still feeling tired. But every day I take my dog to the park for 1 1/2 - 2/1/2 hours and once I'm there walking I actually feel like I have more energy and feel less tired.

Great post, Doc. My wife, two years after an initial find of ovarian cancer, is still tired and achy. Glad to have her around still, and am grateful folks like you are working on stuff like this to make her life better.

Thank you Dr. Evans, It is so important to send out messages to the general public and remind them of the little things that can make a great impact on health, I am a big follower of your great videos and I hope that people do follow your advice and share your videos with as many people as possible. One more time: "Congratulations for your great work" Sonia

I haven't started any treatments yet, but even before I was diagnosed with oral cancer, I was experiencing these same symptoms. Because of these, I knew something was seriously wrong. I would like to hear about the experiences of cancer patients prior to beginning treatment. I imagine treatments themselves would cause many of these symptoms. Good video.

This is so wonderful! Patients that come to our cooking classes are always asking about how to deal with fatigue. This is such a wonderful, understandable way of accepting and dealing with severe fatigue.

Thank you for this outstanding, helpful video. I'm a Stage IV kidney cancer patient, with mets to my lungs and brain, now in my 55th month since dx. My brain treatments (craniotomy and stereotactic radiosurgery) have been successful. I'm attempting to turn my cancer into a chronic, but treatable disease: fatigue is my challenge. I am going to the gym today, starting slowly, of course, but hopeful for improvement in my energy levels.

This makes a lot of sense to me; I am cancer patient/fighter, and fatigue is my number one complaint. Walking has been my exercise of choice, and it has helped me quite a bit. Hearing a doctor talk about this problem has made me feel better, not crazy! Thank you!

My fatigue was far worse during the 3 or so years following the treatment, not during! And it was combined with depression. I thought it would never go. But it did.

Many thanks Dr. Mike. In my mind, walking not only helps with exercise, but gives me the time I need to frame my worries accurately.

thanks sonia. i really appreciate it. mike

This video is so helpful, even to people with out cancer. great video

I found when I went through chemotherapy that walking, horseback riding, and camping were the best fatigue relievers. Thanks for putting together a great video about cancer fatigue.

Great info in this video, love the simple ideas of easier care of myself. I have a good attitude but tiredness can come out of nowhere sometimes. For me its usually from doing too much, poor food choices or stress and I have to rest. I like the journal idea too. Thanks.

Your right on!!!!! Problem is exercise is difficult when you just ran a Marathon and can barely make it from toilet to bed.