Your most annoying cancer side effect

[clickinhistory]

I know we all have a varied and interweaving list of cancer side effects on here, but what is the most annoying one?
Mine is bending over or down to pick something up and when I straighten up, I sound like a man who has just run a marathon at sprint speed.
Makes it worse, my 83 year old says it makes him sound fit and healthy even after one of his walks

[2DB]

I keep dropping and breaking things
I also like to tip my dinner all over the floor when I take it out of the oven
I feel 80 when I get out of bed and oooo and arrrr and ooough and go downstairs
My kids say I need to go in a home

[clickinhistory]

@2DB sounds like you are Worzel in training or trying to embarrass the kids by making over 18’s sound effects for a movie

[Duncan]

Ha this is a great subject! I’ll have a think, but it won’t be hard to list quite a few

[Erica]

Oh @clickinhistory, @2DB and @Duncan a great question - for me it has to be my fatigue, OK, I manage it daily, but it does limit my potential and some things I want to do and with whom.
It also makes me more emotional when I least expect it.
And again, when I least expect it, everything can suddenly become all too much.

[Duncan]

Yes! I’m sorry to find this amusing but I’ve also become far more clumsy, or at least less elegantly balanced. Many a drink has been spilt all over the floor of late, I have no idea how they could have got there

[2DB]

That’s another I’m forever knocking water over everywhere
Usually when I have filled my water bottle

[DottieB]

Being clumsy and tripping over my own feet, usually when carrying food😆

[clickinhistory]

@Duncan this could turn into a @BloodCancerUK new page here
@Erica OK re your other post “with whom” sounds like that hot doc who did your heart test has popped up again but I know what you mean, had loads to do today after the hospital, but ran out of steam.
@2DB and @DottieB OK that is you and @Duncan off the forum’s team for the egg and spoon race at the Paris Olympics this year

Will be interesting to see if any more themes appear in this.

[2DB]

Another
Forgetting what I wanted to say half way through a conversation
Eg today I couldnt get past the pharaoh that was blocking my words

I was having a conversation where I needed to give my National insurance number in an email
Going over what else I needed and then repeating could I remember the name for the number I had just been asked to include (national insurance number) bless them the person on the other end of the phone had no idea what I was trying to say either

[clickinhistory]

so far, the leader board is looking like:

Clumsiness (but that has just tripped up on the final furlough )
Brain fog ( er there was a reason it came second, but )
Breathing and sounding like the worzels if @2DB 's kids are reading this
Tiredness, will come back to this when I have had a nap

Any more annoying side effects?

[clickinhistory]

Talking to a fellow visitor to the ward of the leech, another one was raised,

Looking normal and being made to feel like an imposter.

[DottieB]

Or feeling like an imposter while you’re on watch and wait
I often feel like this

[Erica]

@clickinhistory and @DottieB and all, some brilliant points made.
Don’t start me off on the ‘Oh, you do look well’ when I am feeling rubbish inside.

[Duncan]

Ugh yes being made to feel like an imposter. Having it minimised because “someone I know had leukaemia and they said it’s fine”

[clickinhistory]

I was told this one when I first started this dance with Polycythaemia vera (PV), someone had said to a fellow dancer with this cancer “Oh my sister had breast cancer, she had a real cancer”
I think this perception of “managing a chronic cancer”, "living a normal life(with a caveat of it’s symptoms) is a bit like the advertising on a medical packet, positive and great, until you get an industrial magnifying glass and read the small print or you hear the auctioneer speed voice of the actor speaking the disclaimers.
@Erica that is the price you pay for being a supermodel I guess
@DottieB this is the time for your moment to stand up and shout, “NO, I’m Spartacus”
@Duncan ah the stoic response of ill people to their friends you will appreciate this then https://youtu.be/kYC47DYLq2I?feature=shared

[Duncan]

Monty Python apparently has a bit for every scenario! “Stings a bit…” Hilarious, thank you

Just pootling about on the LLS website and found this, which you and others here may appreciate, @clickinhistory: Language Matters: What Supporters Say is Not Always What People with Cancer Hear | Leukemia and Lymphoma Society

[Jimbo165]

Good evening all, apologies for my recent “comms blackout”, pressures of work have been increasing, with the “helpful” addition of a potential choice between moving to another branch, slightly further away from home, or redundancy: lucky me with those choices!
Helpfully (not!) I also seem to be developing a bad cough and cold and am going downhill quicker than a rabbit on a promise, but hope to bounce back, Zebedee like before my clinical appointment on Friday of this week.

Now then, in answer to the original question, fatigue is by far my most annoying cancer side effect, and has caused me to change my life actions quite a lot. The fear of being “stuck” somewhere due to a lack of energy causes me to go out less often than I would like to, and I tend to concentrate on going to work as that is what pays the bills. Such is life.

My apologies for the mild rant, most unlike me on this forum.

Stay safe everyone, take care and be kind to yourselves.

Jimbo165

[Duncan]

Oh @Jimbo165, even when you feel like you’re ranting you’re still so friendly about it! Rant away, I say. It’s definitely the season for these vile viruses. Might be worth getting checked out if it worsens as there are colds, RSV, and of course COVID-19 going around.

Something that helps me when a cold is coming on is drinking many mugs full of sliced lemon, blobs of honey and chunks of fresh ginger in hot water. If you wanted to add some echinacea that can help too.

Do get it checked out though as we’re prone to infections now thanks to our delightful disorders. I was diagnosed with RSV late last year after testing negative for COVID-19 and it felt worse than respiratory viruses usually feel and took longer to recover from. Annoying!

Get well soon, dear @Jimbo165. Totally agree about fatigue being annoying. Have you found anything helps yours much?

[Jimbo165]

Hi @Duncan, our overseas correspondent, (sounds so much kinder than our Foreign Correspondent!), and thank you for your kind words. It takes a lot to get me to the point of not being friendly, at which point it’s usually too late for the source of my annoyance!

Sadly I haven’t found anything that helps with my fatigue and my Consultant keeps telling me to do some exercise, or to go for a good walk. But when I’ve got home from a 10-12 hour shift I’m simply too “cream-crackered” to indulge in such activity. I used to love swimming, and have a box full of trophies to show for it, but it is such an expensive activity these days.

I’m kind of hoping that the Pegasys injection will help to kill off any nasty bugs that are trying to do me some damage. I’m probably more concerned about possibly having to miss my appointment on Friday though.

I guess it’s all part of life, and even more so the life that we, the users of this excellent and unbelievably important forum, are moving along with.

And that last paragraph should have a link to the other topic of “The Language Of Cancer” too, if only I knew how to do that!!

Best Wishes, Jimbo165