Late Effects

[Allison DeSoto]

So it sounds like a lot of us have experienced chemo brain now and then, but I was wondering if there was any other post-cancer effects that any of you have noticed?  Sometimes it is hard for me to decipher what is normal and what is not and this is a great place to get some of your opinions.  Sometimes the symptoms are not bad enough to go to a doctors appointment (I don't know about you guys but I sure am sick of having any appointments so I try to avoid the doctor's as best I can) so its nice to be able to have you guys to ask some of my questions to.  Sometimes I will get random dizzy spells, just feel kind of disoriented and woozy, for like a couple seconds then it will go away.  Also sometimes I can't really feel when I'm hungry, instead I just get nauseous and know that I need to eat, but then when I do eat I feel kind of icky for awhile after that.  So I was just wondering if any of you have experienced these things or what are other random little symptoms that you get from time to time that you think are cancer survivor related?

PS. I do and will talk to my doctor about these things because I know that even small things shouldn't go un-investigated so no need to tell me to do that (; Just wanted to know if any of you feel these ways from time to time or what other things you experience.  

[Natasha Bear]

Hey Allison! I totally get what you mean.  I don't really get hungry anymore.  Sadly it has not made me eat less, but I can't eat very much in one sitting anymore.  My mom calls it the grazing effect haha.  I also get random dizzy spells.  It's actually really comforting knowing I'm not the only one, I thought I had some sort of disease. Thanks for posting!

[Kane Weinberg]

I think the majority of my symptoms are due to the fact that I am still in the maintenance phase of treatment, but the effects you speak of are definitely familiar to me. The random dizziness occurs occasionally and sometimes I just feel really tired and need to take a nap. Also, similar to you my eating habits have changed quite a bit. I can't eat very much at one time, or else I feel very uncomfortable, and occasional nausea still occurs. Thanks for the post!

[Lexi Chopp]

Weird that I felt like you were totally describing me as I was reading this, Allison.  I experience the dizzy/woozy feeling every once in a while and it just comes out of nowhere.  I hate to admit but a few times I've actually fallen over. The hunger thing happens to me, too.  You know you should eat so you don't feel crummy, but then eating almost makes it worse.  I totally feel for you on these.