Let's Talk Radiation Therapy

Fatigue and Its Effect on Your Spirit

You’ll find I mention fatigue a few different times throughout this book. It’s important to understand why you feel so tired when you’re going through radiation treatments, as it’s the number one side effect people experience. You’ve learned about the science of what causes physical fatigue; however, under this umbrella of headspace, I want to speak about the effects fatigue can have on your spirit.

Facing each day while trying to squeeze in a quick visit to the oncology department for your radiation treatment can grow monotonous and tiring. Knowing that this is one more thing to add to your already busy day can feel exhausting. I will not downplay that showing up five days a week for radiation can certainly contribute to overall fatigue. The mental orchestration to make that happen can be an added stressor in an already hectic time.

The second or third week of radiation is usually when the fatigue can start to catch up to our patients (although it’s important to know that many factors affect this timeline). Your body is now well into its own healing through the cell cycle process. Although this process is completed subconsciously, it can still be draining. At this point in treatment, your skin can start to become bothersome (more on this later), and showing up for treatment can really start to feel like a chore. The combination of these things can easily have you feeling down.

At this stage, when mental and physical fatigue is really setting in, I find that people sometimes communicate this type of fatigue to their brain in the form of thoughts such as, I don’t know if I can do this.
The cancer is going to win. I can’t take much more of this. I should just throw in the towel now. Feeling tired throughout radiation treatments has nothing to do with your mental fortitude or the strength of your own physical body.

Don’t let fatigue make you feel like the cancer is winning—because it isn’t! If that thought passes through your head, let it be fleeting, because you know the scientific truth. Your body is working overtime to repair itself from the repetitive treatments, and that subconscious process can pull a lot of energy from you. Remember, at this point, you’re well into treatment and your body has been continuously working hard to do what it’s trained to do. If you can honor your body by giving it the physical rest it needs and feed your mind with truth from science, you’ll hold a powerful and peaceful space within yourself
for healing.