How Do You Handle Scanxiety?
It may not officially be part of the medical lexicon yet, but “scanxiety” is no less real for those of us who are cancer survivors. The term refers to the anxiety we feel both before we undergo a medical test and before we get the results of the test. For those of us with “no evidence of disease”, we fear the news of a recurrence. For patients who have a recurrence, the anxiety concerns disease progress or treatment ineffectiveness.
Writing in Time magazine in 2011, lung cancer survivor, Bruce Feiler, described scans as “my regular date with my digital destiny. Scanxiety, he wrote, arises from the feeling of “emotional roulette wheels that spin us around for a few days and spit us out the other side. Land on red, we’re in for another trip to Cancerland; land on black, we have a few more months of freedom.” Isn’t that such a brilliant description!
As a long-term breast cancer survivor, my scans are less frequent these days, but the anxiety never goes away. In fact, some studies have suggested that scanxiety bears many similarities to post-traumatic stress.
As some of you know, I write a monthly article for Patient Empowerment Network and this month I am focusing on scanxiety. I’d love to hear from you on this topic. How do you handle it? Do you have some tips you can share with readers to cope with scanxiety? I’d be delighted to feature your tip in the article, mentioning your name and linking to your blog or a social media network of your choice.
Please leave your comments below. I’m looking forward to hearing from you on this important topic.
What a good question, Marie – it’s actually prompted me to write a blog post!
I thought it might be easier for you to pick out whatever you find useful, rather than me posting it all here: http://juliabarnickle.com/11613/how-do-you-handle-anxiety-about-health/
I also remembered a video by Anita Moorjani, where she talks about overcoming fear in health situations, which I thought might be useful: https://youtu.be/Ijpdz5pllao
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How wonderful Julia that this prompted you to write a post – that makes me so happy 🙂 Maybe I should do a monthly prompt here to get all our creative juices following again. Looking forward to reading your post
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Hi Marie, I find my anxiety about scans is either practical (claustrophobia or side effects of any contrasts or frequent scans) and / or getting the results (the wait or if immediate). Since I hace been rediagnosed I am a lot more nervous about the results waiting part of scans. However I prepare, my anxiety is not consistent. Sometimes I sail through it, sometimes I don’t. I certainly keep my eyes shut when inside the machine; focus on my breathing; remind myself this has a start and finish; and then generally try and go in my mind to a calm meadow and have a snooze. Because for once there is nothing else I can or should do for the next minutes. Hope this helps. Karin
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Thank you Karin – this is so helpful – thinking of you as you face this next round of treatment x
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ry 3 months to check if there is any progression (I currently NED living with SBC FOR 4 years) I have taken the view that nothing will change the outcome therefore there’s no point in worrying. Of course that’s easier said than done. I try to block out the thoughts of what the scan could potentially show the night before and then deal with it on a daily basis. I am still very nervous in the time between scan and reporting but throwing myself into work or exercise or anything else I do is helpful. Having a busy mind and being busy helps me to deal with it.
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Hi Karin, I had forgotten all about the claustrophobia – even though I used to be acutely claustrophobic! I do the same as you: keep my eyes shut, focus on my breathing, and try to relax and perhaps have a snooze. One thing I tell everyone is that I also underwent an NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) process, called the “Fast Phobia Cure” – and it really worked. I still don’t like enclosed spaces, but I certainly don’t panic like I used to.
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With scans every 3 months to check if there is any progression (I currently NED living with SBC FOR 4 years) I have taken the view that nothing will change the outcome therefore there’s no point in worrying. Of course that’s easier said than door.
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Jo, thank you so much for taking the time to comment here – your thoughts are most valuable and I know already that both you and Julia have reassured some other patients with your practical advice.
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I don’t handle scanxiety very well. Having had a breast cancer recurrence and numerous scares, each unusual test increases my anxiety.
During the tests I try to relax and breathe, but when I have pain in the area being investigated it interferes with my ability to stay calm.
MRI’s are very noisy- and because my recurrence was found through an MRI biopsy, I have many memories of scary results from that test.
I must admit though the hardest part is waiting for results.
I just try to get it out of my mind.
Then the waiting begins. I look forward to reading your article with tips for all stages.
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Dear Susan, your comment so perfectly captures the PTSD I mentioned earlier – thanks for sharing your thoughts with us.
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Hi Marie,
I am a procrastinator by nature. Maybe this is part of the reason I always tell myself why worry until I need to worry. That works for me. I don’t experience a whole lot of anxiety with scans, but I fully realize my attitude about them would be entirely different if I were metastatic. I hope I don’t sound insensitive because I surely don’t mean to, but I’d actually like to be sent through a scanner once a year to see what the heck is going on in there. But, of course, this isn’t how oncology works. Thanks for wanting our input, Marie, on an important topic.
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Thanks so much Nancy for sharing your thoughts on this topic.
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