Radiotherapy Induced Fatigue: A Case Study

Previously Mr Brown was a very fit gentleman, working full time and supporting his family, as Carmen, (2009) reported, for both patient and family members, fatigue can result in significant stress and anxiety. I encouraged him to discuss how fatigue had affected his lifestyle and his well-being. One way in which fatigue impacted on Mr Brown was carrying out cognitive tasks such as his ability to concentrate, remembering things and keeping dates straight. He appeared distressed for example, at not being able to participate in pastimes important to him such as reading, watching television and helping his sons with their homework. Theses psychological consequences are consistent with a number of studies which found that patients receiving radiotherapy had experienced difficulties with memory, concentration and thinking (Potter,2004; Olson et al, 2007 and Alexeeva et al, 2008). In another study Ahlberg et al, (2004) on investigating how radiotherapy induced fatigue affected participants’ ability to follow treatment related instructions, as well as the impact on their memory and concentration, the findings indicated that……This is significant, as for Mr Brown, fulfilling his role as a father was exceptionally important to him, especially as he was
using a fatigue assessment tool would be invaluable to gain an accurate assessment of how they are feeling. In future I will be looking to use either the Piper Fatigue scale (Piper et al., 1998) or the FACT-F (Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy Fatigue; Yellen et al., 1997) theses are recognised tools which aimed at assessing the severity of fatigue and its impact on patients. As a formal fatigue scale is useful in assessing the impact of fatigue on the patient’s function such