Looking for input: fatigue after radiation (athletes/exercisers, I’d love your insight)
Hi everyone,
I’m 42F, about 3 weeks out from finishing head and neck radiation (parotid gland, which is a bit less invasive RT than the tongue/other areas, but my throat was hit pretty hard with 20GY scatter dose), and I’m trying to make sense of the fatigue I’m dealing with.
During treatment, I actually managed pretty well overall (aside from brain fog, feeling "lazy", and a bit of a sore throat). But now, even though the fog has lifted and I feel mentally “back,” the physical fatigue is hitting me harder than I expected. I can do things like work, walk, or be active, but I seem to crash much more easily and take longer to recover than I did even during treatment.
It almost feels like my body is catching up now that treatment is over, or like the healing phase is more demanding than I anticipated. I’ll have a relatively normal day, and then the next day I feel completely drained.
For specifics, I'm trying to do my usual 60 minutes of cycling, but at a much lesser intensity. And this seems to be messing me up for days after: I end up feeling flu-like and crappy for days.
For those who’ve been through this:
- Did your fatigue peak after treatment rather than during? How long after?
- How long did this phase last for you?
- Did you find pacing yourself made a big difference, or did it just improve with time regardless?
I’m trying to figure out what’s “normal” versus me pushing too hard.
I should add that this is my second primary cancer. I went into radiation therapy without a thyroid gland and rely on Synthroid for hormone replacement. So the usual concern about radiation affecting the thyroid doesn’t apply in my case. If anything, the considerations would be medication absorption or effects on the parathyroid or pituitary glands—not the thyroid itself. At least this is what I understand.
Would really appreciate hearing others’ experiences 🙏 Thank you.