Chemo Fog?

From another support group..........(DeeTee is a member who just began
chemo)

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 cancer13
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.
..
..
..
ANGELS EXIST, but some times, since they don't all have wings, we call
them FRIENDS......