Do I Have to Live With Fatigue?

Do I have to live with my fatigue?

What I tell people is, especially when it comes to things like fatigue... I just had a woman come in and she said, "You know, I'm four years out from my breast cancer. I can't go back to work, I feel really exhausted all the time." And she had this huge workup, and as part of the workup she had a sleep study. And the sleep study showed mild sleep apnea, which means that she pauses in her breathing at night a little bit.

Her doctor said, "You know, I don't think that that's a big deal, it's just mild, and I don't think you should worry about it", and I said, "but you're really tired. Why not treat that and see how much your fatigue improves?"

I mean, even if it's just a little bit of sleep apnea you may be much more symptomatic from that little bit of sleep apnea especially after surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatment, that that little bit of sleep apnea may really be impacting how you're feeling. So treat that and then see how much fatigue you have. Don't attribute all your fatigue to cancer-related fatigue and that's something that you can't necessarily control or do anything about.