Fatigue
How To Talk To Your Nurse

Speak Up: Get Help to Manage Cancer Fatigue

Recent studies show that cancer treatment-related fatigue is the most common and debilitating side effect experienced by cancer patients. Despite its commonness many people with cancer are hesitant to ask for help and assume fatigue is an inevitable effect of cancer treatment. In fact, three out of four people with cancer report they didn't even realize that treatment for their fatigue exists.

Screening and evaluating cancer-related fatigue should take place with every patient/healthcare encounter. Keeping a journal may facilitate greater opportunities for education and discussion of management.

Fatigue is NOT an inevitable effect of cancer and its treatment - there are ways to relieve your fatigue such as medications and lifestyle changes. To learn about available management strategies and treatment options for cancer fatigue, it is essential that people with cancer talk to their nurse or doctor about the condition, its severity and its impact on their daily lives. If you or a loved one is living with cancer fatigue, it is important to remember the following:

• If you are concerned about discussing fatigue with your doctor, try talking to your oncology nurse, who specializes in helping you manage symptoms of the disease and its treatment.



• If you are too tired to discuss your fatigue with a nurse or doctor, take a friend or a family member with you. They can serve as a good communication link between you and your care provider and provide details about the effects fatigue has on you.



• Keep a diary about your fatigue, including its severity and impact on your daily activities, which you can use as a tool to help you discuss the condition with your nurse or doctor.



• Empower yourself through education by using resources which provide important information about fatigue, management strategies and available treatment options, such as the Oncology Nursing Society's (ONS) www.cancersymptoms.org.



• Join support groups to share your own experiences and to learn how other cancer patients cope with cancer and its symptoms and how they discuss fatigue with their health care providers.