My 87 yo father is experiencing profound fatigue after his 4th R-CHOP. He can't dress himself or even hold his head erect for very long. It is 3 weeks post-chemo. He has experienced some fatigue after previous treatments but nothing like this. Comments?

1. In general side effects don't lessen throughout chemo; rather they tend to get worse. This is especially true of fatigue.

2. Has he lost weight? This, along with a depressed immune system, can worsen the fatigue.

3. Anemia?

He has lost some weight and his appetite has certainly declined. As far as anemia, his numbers were on the rise and that is being checked again, along w/ thyroid function.
Seeing him like this, I have to wonder if he is ever going to gain strength and that has me concerned. He doesn't want to leave his chair and every movement is taxing--I don't know how hard we should push to get him up and about. He also complains about skin sensitivity--even the seams of his sweatpants irritate him.

Buddy-
You know sometimes coming out of the later ends of R-CHOP, it can take a month or more for their bone marrow to bounce back. In that time the fatigue can be profound.

Obviously his docs thought he could handle R-CHOP despite his age, but it's a pretty substantial risk.

Skin problems aren't uncommon, but they are surely both uncomfortable and very demoralizing. There's some good info on treating chemo-related skin changes HERE.

Regarding the multi-vitamin, I'm guessing you didn't run it by his doc first? There's a outside chance of contra-indication; I would discontinue it and, if you haven't yet, check with his doc.

Ross

Ross, I certainly appreciate your wisdom. I took him to his oncologist today where he was given a couple liters of IV Dextrose (his blood pressure had bottomed out). The doc also thought that his extreme fatigue may be in part due to his withdrawal from prednisone. He told me that elderly patients may have more difficulty with the off-again-on-again of this particular drug. So he started him on some prednisone and we are hoping we see a significant improvement soon. He was having a hard time swallowing the vitamin anyway so that is not an issues any longer. Thanks for the skin info--knowing that it happens to many others is in itself comforting.