Hello - living with CML and struggling with fatigue. Does anyone have tips/advice on how to manage this? It's making me depressed

Nice to see a forum such as this one. I am male in my 70’s and I was diagnosed with CML in he summer of 2023.

My treatment has been 400mg of Imatinib on a daily basis, recently reduced to 300mg.

I suppose I am a typical patient with symptoms of  bone pain, cramps, nausea, bloating, diarrhoea, and more recently fatigue and weakness. I seemed to be coping with the illness and the consequential side effects until I started getting fatigued after doing very little manual work.

Can anyone suffering similar symptoms or know of anything I could raise with my haematologist to help with the fatigue. This is making me depressed.

i am due to have my 3 monthly clinic this month and would appreciate any help the group may have.

Thank you for listening.

  • Welcome to the Cancer Chat community Salboy, although I'm sorry to hear you've been struggling with fatigue.

    Many of our members have encountered similar difficulties, so hopefully some of them will stop by soon to offer their support and advice, but in the meantime I hope these tips we have on managing fatigue will be useful.

    You can also discuss this with one of our cancer nurses on 0808 800 4040, Monday - Friday between 9a.m - 5p.m. They're very insightful and will do all they can to help.

    We're sending you all our support SalBoy and hope all goes well for you at the clinic this month.

    Kind regards,

    Steph, Cancer Chat Moderator

  • Salboy,  I would have a talk with your haematologist about maybe changing to another kti  pill if its that bad. I was OK on imatinib for 3 years plus but did have some muscle issues and fatigue, however it was preferable to the alternative. I am in remission now and when I stopped the pills my toilet issues disappeared but the muscle issues are only gradually improving after 4 months