It is a little known fact that I don't remember the summer after my first year of law school. This isn't much of an exaggeration. The year after my thyroidectomy, I had a neck dissection, and I can't tell you what I did.
The first time I experienced issues with my memory and thought process in general was a week after my thyroid came out. Being me, I only took a week off from school... I mean, I was graduating in a couple months, I wasn't about to put my life on hold. And being fairly confident about being fairly smart, I went and wrote a paper, even after my prof. told me I could wait. I couldn't make things make sense. I met with my prof. we both looked at it, and I bluntly said that I couldn't understand what it was supposed to be about. This was terrifying, and demoralizing.
And then, a few months later, I went to law school. There's a part of me that just attributed how much trouble I've had in law school to the fact that, well, its law school. But some things have been seriously noticeable. I can't read as fast. I can't remember everything I read. I have a hard time connecting some ideas without writing them out first, and even then my ideas have never been the same as they were. Its hard to explain. And then after a year, someone is giving a lecture and they told my support group about how losing your thyroid, or being hypothyroid affects memory... and suddenly, it isn't just you.
I've been reading stuff on Cancer Planet (see link on the side bar)... and it sounds like memory and intelligence issues is nothing new to cancer patients. I feel like things have gotten a lot better, but aren't where they were. Does anyone out there, who have gotten over treatment stages feel like things have gotten better for you? It would be something good to know.
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