O sent me this article just now from the NYTimes on Chemo Brain, which is the word doctors are using to describe the long term cognitive side effects that some chemo patients experience on a permanent/semi-permanent basis.
As more people with cancer survive and try to return to their former lives, a side effect of chemotherapy is getting more and more attention. Its name is apt, if unappealing: chemo brain.
Nearly every chemotherapy patient experiences short-term problems with memory and concentration. But about 15 percent suffer prolonged effects of what is known medically as chemotherapy-induced cognitive impairment.
I have been struggling with these symptoms all year, and they are starting to go away. I still have problems with words and names. If interrupted while telling a story or doing some multi-step talks frequently can’t remember what I was doing or saying. And today while driving, I got lost, realized I was lost, reoriented myself, and then did the same thing going the other direction, and then did it again. 3 times! I kept getting off the freeway, turning around, and going the other way.
do you also think it could be an extreme stress response (the memory stuff)? For me when I have something happen which is emotionally stressful I act the same way for a lengthen amount of time- I will walk to the wrong places, forget what I was saying mid-sentence or even who I am talking to on the phone.. . I wonder how much stress more then drugs has something to do with it?