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Log inGarland storyteller working to combat 'chemo brain'
Garland storyteller working to combat 'chemo brain'
by Outspoken on Fri Jul 04, 2008 9:04 am
Garland storyteller working to combat 'chemo brain'
By Meg Haskell
Staff Writer Bangor Daily News
Deena Weinstein is a professional storyteller. She's also a writer, counselor, educator and notary public. She officiates at weddings and funerals and visits sick people at home and in the hospital. She's a wife and mother. She loves to travel. It could be hard to keep track of all of her interests and activities - and indeed, the 60-year-old Garland resident said in a recent interview that she has always been a little scatterbrained.
But back in 2004, while undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer, Weinstein found her brain feeling more scattered than usual. She was more forgetful, less able to concentrate, failing to recall people’s names, losing items she had just set down. She took wrong turns while driving familiar routes. She forgot what she was about to say.
Her oncologist assured her these changes were related to her cancer treatment and told her they would dissipate when she finished her treatments.
"But instead of getting better, it got worse," she said. The symptoms fueled her fears that she was developing Alzheimer’s or some other form of dementia. Her family was growing frustrated with her changed behavior. Finally, when the problems had persisted for more than a year after she finished her chemotherapy and radiation treatments — successfully sending her cancer into remission — her doctor referred her to Bangor psychologist Robert Ferguson.
"Chemo brain" is the term Ferguson uses to describe the changes in the way Weinstein processes and organizes information. It’s a common, widely recognized but poorly understood side effect of chemotherapy and radiation, he said, and in most patients it does begin to resolve shortly after treatment ends, as Weinstein’s oncologist suggested.
But for as many as 25 percent to 50 percent of patients, Ferguson said, the brain changes persist and in some cases worsen over time. With an estimated 1 million Americans undergoing cancer treatment each year, he said, there are a lot of people living with impaired brain function associated with chemo brain.
"Cancer is now considered a chronic disease," Ferguson said, with many people surviving years beyond their diagnosis and treatment. While cancer specialists may consider a patient cured once cancer is in remission, Ferguson said behavioral psychologists like him hear from survivors whose careers and personal lives have suffered because of the changes cancer treatment has made in their cognitive abilities.
http://bangornews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=166676&zoneid=500
(Bangor Daily News/Kate Collins)
By Meg Haskell
Staff Writer Bangor Daily News
Deena Weinstein is a professional storyteller. She's also a writer, counselor, educator and notary public. She officiates at weddings and funerals and visits sick people at home and in the hospital. She's a wife and mother. She loves to travel. It could be hard to keep track of all of her interests and activities - and indeed, the 60-year-old Garland resident said in a recent interview that she has always been a little scatterbrained.
But back in 2004, while undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer, Weinstein found her brain feeling more scattered than usual. She was more forgetful, less able to concentrate, failing to recall people’s names, losing items she had just set down. She took wrong turns while driving familiar routes. She forgot what she was about to say.
Her oncologist assured her these changes were related to her cancer treatment and told her they would dissipate when she finished her treatments.
"But instead of getting better, it got worse," she said. The symptoms fueled her fears that she was developing Alzheimer’s or some other form of dementia. Her family was growing frustrated with her changed behavior. Finally, when the problems had persisted for more than a year after she finished her chemotherapy and radiation treatments — successfully sending her cancer into remission — her doctor referred her to Bangor psychologist Robert Ferguson.
"Chemo brain" is the term Ferguson uses to describe the changes in the way Weinstein processes and organizes information. It’s a common, widely recognized but poorly understood side effect of chemotherapy and radiation, he said, and in most patients it does begin to resolve shortly after treatment ends, as Weinstein’s oncologist suggested.
But for as many as 25 percent to 50 percent of patients, Ferguson said, the brain changes persist and in some cases worsen over time. With an estimated 1 million Americans undergoing cancer treatment each year, he said, there are a lot of people living with impaired brain function associated with chemo brain.
"Cancer is now considered a chronic disease," Ferguson said, with many people surviving years beyond their diagnosis and treatment. While cancer specialists may consider a patient cured once cancer is in remission, Ferguson said behavioral psychologists like him hear from survivors whose careers and personal lives have suffered because of the changes cancer treatment has made in their cognitive abilities.
http://bangornews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=166676&zoneid=500
(Bangor Daily News/Kate Collins)
"Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything."
Plato (427-347 BC)
Plato (427-347 BC)
