My 70 year old father was diagnosed several months ago with nsclc, stage 3b. Since then, he has been on chemo...no surgery.
He has been anemic during most of his time on chemo, and has had a Procrit injection twice to boost his numbers.
My question is this: How do you distinguish between depression and fatigue? I feel that his fatigue CAUSES him depression, in that he is unable to do anything that he did before. Even small tasks, or trips to the store wear him out. If any of us offer to do any yard work, or any of "his" old tasks, he is angry, and short with us. So....many of the daily chores go undone. And he is sleeping, and sleeping, and sleeping (when he's not awake being grumpy).
Meanwhile....his cancer is, at best, "stable". It has not grown during these 3 months, but no shrinking either. My dad is one of those "get in and get it done" kind of guys. I think he is hoping to treat this, and move on and get back into life. I don't see it happening that way.
We are all struggling here. My parents have no support system, spiritually or otherwise. I have my church, and friends I can go to, and, of course, my faith. They are alone in their dark hole. I am the only child here in town, and I call and visit often.
I see my mother's mood eb and flow with his, and it is so disheartening! I don't know how to "encourage" them, if this is what his life is going to be like from now on. I can tell you, it is no life......and it makes me question whether or not he should be going through all of this chemo to only draw out the suffering.