Chemo Brain Seminar

I apologize for my absence in class today. I was attending a seminar by Dr. Karen Meneses at the American Cancer Society. This seminar was focused on an issue that was discussed frequently in our focus group sessions; "chemo brain" and cognitive changes that cancer survivors experience. The crowd included survivors, various oncology health care professionals, and nursing students from Jeff State. Although there is not a lot of data out there related specifically to cognitive changes due to chemotherapy, Dr. Meneses and Silvia Camata were able to provide information and give useful tips to help with this problem. Some of these tips included: keeping post-it notes available to jot down reminders, journal to keep track of the progression of change, eat healthy foods with lots of vitamins (particularly B6), exercise regularly, and keep a planner with you to keep track of events. The survivors present were able to voice specific concerns that related to them, and also provide additional tips to one another about how they deal with this problem. I really enjoyed being able to participate in this, and getting to yet again assist with helping survivors in the issues that they face.