Difficulty concentrating, focussing and feeling foggy

[The_Sports_Guy]

Hi all,

Last year I was diagnosed with stage 4 Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Thankfully, I am now almost 12 months in remission and back working and living a pretty normal life. I often have flashbacks of difficult conversations with specialists, flashbacks on being in hospital and feel emotionally exhausted with what I've gone through over the last 18 months.

The most challenging and difficult part of this now is having trouble concentrating, focussing and feeling foggy which makes work and everyday life activities extremely difficult. I feel like I'm 'not really there'. I feel like no body fully understands what I am experiencing, which makes me feel a little lost and helpless.

I have wonderful support from friends and family, and a fiance - but strangely enough, I still feel like I am battling this alone.

[Doolhof]

Hi Sports Guy,

Congratulations for being in remission! It certainly does sound like you have been on quite a journey.

Is it possible for you to talk with a psychologist about how you are feeling or even your GP to see if your challenges and troubles may be typical for a person with similar experiences to you?

I feel that with everything we go through in life, no one can fully understand what we are experiencing, as we all experience even the same things differently.

This does not help you at all when you are desiring to be fully understood, for people to be able to grasp what you are experiencing, to maybe acknowledge more fully what you are now feeling.

Does it help you to write here how you are feeling and what is happening in your life? I don't understand fully as I have not walked in your shoes. There are some things I have experienced in my life that you may never understand.

That does not mean that people care less. They may not know how to express how much they care for you.

Hope you find some answers.

All the best from Dools

[The_Sports_Guy]

Hi Dools, thank you for responding.

You make a good point that others may find it difficult to fully understand what I am experiencing and acknowledge that its not as if they don't care or don't want to understand as this is a very complicated experience and feelings.

I have seen a GP about this and he recommend I visit this website. I have been seeing a psychologist for over a year now and he is quite content with how things are going - BUT I still experience this extreme fogginess, severe difficulties in focussing and concentrating. I don't know if it will ever go away and it really is tough to live with. The most upsetting part is having to live with it now, and go through wonderful life experiences but not enjoying them as much because I feel so awful.

I do have confidence that this will get better, but for now it feels so helpless and a real struggle.

Thanks again.

[romantic_thi3f]

Hi The Sports Guy,

Welcome to the forums and thanks for your post. I too am happy that you're in remission! I'm sorry though that all of this has left you with this fogginess and difficulty concentrating. It must be so frustrating to live with.

I'm glad that you have such a strong support system, but it makes sense that they don't understand what you're experiencing, given they haven't been in the same boat. The people who have been in the same boat would be people with cancer - it's so hard to grapple the idea of fatigue if people have never been through something so long-term.

You mentioned in your post that you saw a psychologist, but have you ever talked about this with your psychologist? It's nice that he's content with how things are going, but you're not, so I really encourage you to bring this up.

One thing that you might be open to is a webinar by the Cancer Council NSW. They run them every now and then free for anyone who wants to watch. I watched one in 2017 that was aimed at the general public talking about fatigue. They had a few experts on there as well as someone who'd dealt with it too. If you're interested, it's "Fatigue after Cancer Treatment – “What can I do to stop feeling so tired?”
Read more at https://www.cancercouncil.com.au/get-support/webinars/#tg6ohCcUfl7edEEK.99

I hope that this helps, or that your psychologist is able to better work with you to make things easier.