Re: Chemo Fog?

Great News..DeeTee...You add the Fibro fog with the Chemo Fog...
Oh Boy!!!!!I can't even imagine....
Millions and Millions of Hugs...
Cindy
"Donna G." <DKGBeeker@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:21983-4634FC5B-20@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


A friend just sent the article below to me.

Wow, there is actually something called chemo fog. Kind of like fibro
fog and the usual brain fog that comes with many of these inflammatory
diseases.


Interesting. DeeTee, did your doctors mention anything to you about the
possibility of chemo fog?



April 29, 2007
Chemotherapy Fog Is No Longer Ignored as Illusion
By JANE GROSS
On an Internet chat room popular with breast cancer survivors, one
thread - called "Where's My Remote?" - turns the mental fog known as
chemo brain into a stand-up comedy act.
One woman reported finding five unopened gallons of milk in her
refrigerator and having no memory of buying the first four. A second had
to ask her husband which toothbrush belonged to her.
At a family celebration, one woman filled the water glasses with turkey
gravy. Another could not remember how to carry over numbers when
balancing the checkbook.
Once, women complaining of a constellation of symptoms after undergoing
chemotherapy - including short-term memory loss, an inability to
concentrate, difficulty retrieving words, trouble with multitasking and
an overarching sense that they had lost their mental edge - were often
sent home with a patronizing "There, there."
But attitudes are changing as a result of a flurry of research and new
attention to the after-effects of life-saving treatment. There is now
widespread acknowledgment that patients with cognitive symptoms are not
imagining things, and a growing number of oncologists are rushing to
offer remedies, including stimulants commonly used for attention-deficit
disorder and acupuncture.
"Until recently, oncologists would discount it, trivialize it, make
patients feel it was all in their heads," said Dr. Daniel Silverman, a
cancer researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, who
studies the cognitive side effects of chemotherapy. "Now there's enough
literature, even if it's controversial, that not mentioning it as a
possibility is either ignorant or an evasion of professional duty."
That shift matters to patients.
"Chemo brain is part of the language now, and just to have it
acknowledged makes a difference," said Anne Grant, 57, who owns a
picture-framing business in New York City. Ms. Grant, who had high-dose
chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant in 1995, said she could not
concentrate well enough to read, garbled her sentences and struggled
with simple decisions like which socks to wear.
Virtually all cancer survivors who have had toxic treatments like
chemotherapy experience short-term memory loss and difficulty
concentrating during and shortly afterward, experts say. But a vast
majority improve. About 15 percent, or roughly 360,000 of the nation's
2.4 million female breast cancer survivors, the group that has dominated
research on cognitive side effects, remain distracted years later,
according to some experts. And nobody knows what distinguishes this 15
percent.
Most oncologists agree that the culprits include very high doses of
chemotherapy, like those in anticipation of a bone marrow transplant;
the combination of chemotherapy and supplementary hormonal treatments,
like tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors that lower the amount of estrogen
in women who have cancers fueled by female hormones; and early-onset
cancer that catapults women in their 30s and 40s into menopause.
Other clues come from studies too small to be considered definitive. One
such study found a gene linked to Alzheimer's disease in cancer
survivors with cognitive deficits. Another, using PET scans, found
unusual activity in the part of the brain that controls short-term
recall.
The central puzzle of chemo brain is that many of the symptoms can occur
for reasons other than chemotherapy.
Abrupt menopause, which often follows treatment, also leaves many women
fuzzy-headed in a more extreme way than natural menopause, which unfolds
slowly. Those cognitive issues are also features of depression and
anxiety, which often accompany a cancer diagnosis. Similar effects are
also caused by medications for nausea and pain.
Dr. Tim Ahles, one of the first American scientists to study cognitive
side effects, acknowledges that studies have been too small and lacked
adequate baseline data to isolate a cause.
"So many factors affect cognitive function, and the kinds of cognitive
problems associated with cancer treatment can be caused by many other
things than chemotherapy," said Dr. Ahles, the director of
neurocognitive research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New
York.
The new interest in chemo brain is, in effect, a testimony to enormous
strides in the field. Patients who once would have died now live long
enough to have cognitive side effects, just as survivors of childhood
leukemia did many years ago, forcing new treatment protocols to avoid
learning disabilities.
"A large number of people are living long and normal lives," said Dr.
Patricia Ganz, an oncologist at U.C.L.A. who is one of the nation's
first specialists in the late side effects of treatment. "It's no longer
enough to cure them. We have to acknowledge the potential consequences
and address them early on."
As researchers look for a cause, cancer survivors are trying to figure
out how to get through the day by sharing their experiences, and by
tapping expertise increasingly being offered online by Web sites like
www.breastcancer.org and www.cancercare.org.
There are "ask the experts" teleconferences, both live and archived, and
fact sheets to download and show to a skeptical doctor. Message boards
suggest sharpening the mind with Japanese sudoku puzzles or compensatory
techniques devised to help victims of brain injury. There are even
sweatshirts for sale saying "I Have Chemo Brain. What's Your Excuse?"
Studies of cognitive effects have overwhelmingly been conducted among
breast cancer patients because they represent, by far, the largest group
of cancer survivors and because they tend to be sophisticated advocates,
challenging doctors and volunteering for research.
Most researchers studying cognitive deficits say they believe that those
most inclined to notice even subtle changes are high-achieving women
juggling careers and families who are used to succeeding at both. They
point to one study that found that complaints of cognitive deficits
often did not match the results of neuro-psychological tests, suggesting
that chemo brain is a subjective experience.
"They say, 'I've lost my edge,' " said Dr. Stewart Fleishman, director
of cancer supportive services at Beth Israel and St. Luke's/Roosevelt
hospitals in New York. "If they can't push themselves to the limit, they
feel impaired."
Dr. Fleishman and others were pressed as to why a poor woman, working
several jobs to feed her children, navigating the health care system and
battling insurance companies, would not also need mental dexterity.
"Maybe we're just not asking them," Dr. Fleishman said.
Overall, middle-class cancer patients tend to get more aggressive
treatment, participate in support groups, enroll in studies and use the
Internet for research and community more than poor and minority
patients, experts say.
"The disparity plays out in all kinds of ways," said Ellen Coleman, the
associate executive director of CancerCare, which provides free support
services. "They don't approach their health care person because they
don't expect help."
But approaching a doctor does not guarantee help. Susan Mitchell, 48,
who does freelance research on economic trends, complained to her
oncologist in Jackson, Miss., that her income had been halved since her
breast cancer treatment last year because everything took longer for her
to accomplish.
She said his reply was a shrug.
"They see their job as keeping us alive, and we appreciate that," Ms.
Mitchell said. "But it's like everything else is a luxury. These are
survivor issues, and they need to get used to the fact that lots of us
are surviving."
Among women like Ms. Mitchell, lost A.T.M. cards are as common as
missing socks. Children arrive at birthday parties a week early. Wet
clothes wind up in the freezer instead of the dryer. Prosthetic breasts
and wigs are misplaced at the most inopportune times. And simple words
disappear from memory: "The thing with numbers" will have to do for the
word "calculator."
Linda Lowen, 46, had a hysterectomy and chemotherapy for ovarian cancer
13 years ago, and says she still cannot recognize neighbors at the
grocery store. "I had a mind like a steel trap, and I ended up with a
colander for a brain," said Ms. Lowen, a radio and television talk show
host in Syracuse.
The other night, Ms. Lowen set out to find a good place to store her
knitting supplies. She began emptying a cabinet of games that her
teenage daughters no longer played. Meanwhile, she noticed a blown light
bulb and went to find a replacement. That detour led to another, and
five hours later she had scrubbed every surface and tidied the contents
of eight drawers. But she still had no storage space for her knitting
supplies.
"I have an almost childlike inability to follow through on anything,"
Ms. Lowen said.
Solutions come in many forms for women whose cancer treatment has left
them with cognitive deficits.
Sedra Jayne Varga, 50, an administrative assistant in family court in
Manhattan, is part of a research study of the stimulant Focalin, which
she said had helped. But Ms. Varga also plans to have laser surgery on
her eyes so that losing her glasses will no longer be an issue.
Lu Ann Hudson, 44, a designer of financial databases in Cincinnati,
relies on a key fob that sets off a beep in her car when she is looking
for it in parking lots. Terry-Lynne Jordan, 43, who analyzes
environmental incidents for an oil company in Calgary, Alberta, uses the
calendar on her computer and voice mail messages to herself to remind
her of meetings.
And Debbie Kamplain, a 32-year-old stay-at-home mother in Peoria, Ill.,
hired a $30-an-hour personal organizer to help her sell a house, buy
another and get ready to move her family to Indiana next month.
But it is Ms. Kamplain's 2 ½-year-old son, Daniel, who sees to it that
she stays on task. Long before Daniel could talk, he would pull her over
to the refrigerator if she got distracted while getting him a drink.
"Poor kid," Ms. Kamplain said. "I say I'm going to do something, forget
about it immediately, and he's the one who has to remind Mommy about
stuff."


Donna G.
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ANGELS EXIST, but some times, since they don't all have wings, we call
them FRIENDS......


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