One of my readers told me about her ongoing physical battle with the long-term effects of chemotherapy treatments, she had received as a child. The biggest challenge, she shared with me, was getting her doctors to believe that she had a real physical problem caused by the treatments she had received so many years ago. Apparently, studies hadn’t been completed on the lasting effects of chemotherapy, at least none that she could find, while searching on the internet to support her claims.

She suffers with chronic fatigue, nerve pain, and bone pain that are especially troublesome in her spine. However, her doctors labeled her complaints, “impossible,” and she began to question her sanity. When she finally found an article on WebMd, she felt immediate validation and relief. Not relief from the pain, she’s learned to cope with that, but relief in knowing that her sanity was no longer in question, and others too, were struggling and looking for answers.

All drugs come with a list of possible side effect, unwanted things that occur as a direct result of taking a drug. Not to be confused with “symptoms,” which have nothing to do with taking the drug, but are a direct result of the disease.

Chemotherapy drugs have different short-term and long-term side effects and not every person treated will suffer from every side effect. Any cells in the body, which are dividing quickly, are targets for chemotherapy drugs, including the normal cells, in an effort to destroy the cancer. The areas commonly affected by treatment are the mouth, intestines, skin, hair, and bone marrow.

Some side effects of chemotherapy don’t damage your health, and will eventually go away when treatment concludes, but they can be upsetting to experience or just plain inconvenient. Other effects such as specific alterations in brain metabolism and blood flow can last a decade or more and can cause long-term confusion and trouble performing short-term memory tests. Doctors are just now recognizing the lasting side-effects of chemotherapy, as more people become long-term survivors.

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