“Will someone need to drive me home after radiation therapy?”
The hospital I will be getting my breast cancer treatments at is over an hour away. It will be 3 days a week. Will this be OK for me to drive after radiation or will the fatigue be too much if at all?
19 Answers
Most patients are able to manage this.
The vast majority of patients are able to drive themselves back and forth from their treatments. Radiation is designed to be a friendly outpatient experience without minimal disruption in your day to day life.
Most patients are able to drive themselves without difficulty after radiation therapy.
Falguni
Falguni
How many radiation treatments in total you will get for your breast cancer ? Usually you will be fine during the first two weeks of radiation and don't feel tired. You might have tiredness beginning the third week. I have seen patients continued to work while they were receiving radiation treatments. Everybody is different.
You will be able to drive yourself home.
No, you’ll be fine! Perhaps toward the end of your course you may want someone with you in case you develop some fatigue, but you’ll know. It’s a cumulative effect, so it won’t hit you all at once.
Good luck!
Good luck!
Normally, radiation to the breast will not cause fatigue. But If you are not sure how you feel, then have someone to go with the first few days.
You will be OK to drive. Radiation for breast cancer has to be daily, 5 times a week. I am not sure that 3 days a week treatment is adequate. It is not Standard of Care!
Most patients tolerate breast radiotherapy just fine. You can expect some redness of skin and fatigue. 5% or so get enough skin breakdown that they need to be given strong pain meds for a couple of weeks. Everybody feels fatigued and that may persist for 2-3 weeks after treatment is done. Most women drive themselves but a driver sometimes helps to keep spirits up which is always good.
in general, for a patient being treated for breast cancer you should have minimal side effects. Fatigue, as you noted, will be your biggest problem and one should be wary of a long drive if you are tired. You should not have any nausea or other problems that would debilitate you. If you feel comfortable driving and can live on coffee you should be fine, otherwise I would have either company to keep you awake or someone to actually drive.
No significant problems that would affect your driving.
You may be able to drive yourself at the beginning. But you may feel more fatigued and need someone to drive you towards the end of the treatment.
No. you can drive yourself.
OK to drive.
I like to describe the side effects from radiation this way: All the changes are week-to-week changes, not day-to-day changes.
So if you are able to drive yourself to the appointments, you should be able to drive yourself back. In my practice, for breast cancer patients at least, I have not had a single woman yet be so fatigued from the radiation they cannot drive themselves.
So if you are able to drive yourself to the appointments, you should be able to drive yourself back. In my practice, for breast cancer patients at least, I have not had a single woman yet be so fatigued from the radiation they cannot drive themselves.
You should be fine driving home after your RT. The fatigue should not be that debilitating. Good luck with treatment.
No. The general rule is: "If you can drive yourself in, you can drive yourself home." Treatment usually takes about 15 minutes per day, and normally does not cause any side effects that would interfere with the ability to drive.
You will be able to drive yourself.
Fatigue does not occur in all patients. Anemia and multiple drugs may cause fatigue. Radiation-induced fatigue is not well understood and occurs in some, but not all patients. So, you may be OK to drive after treatment with radiation alone.
