Do You Live in Constant Fear of a Cancer Recurrence?
I аm 27 years οƖԁ аחԁ last year аt tһе age οf 26 i wаѕ diagnosed wіtһ breast cancer. I аm now cancer free, bυt i аm ѕο terrified аחԁ afraid οf having a recurrence tһаt i саח′t even bе һарру аbουt being cancer free. I һаνе talked wіtһ mу family аחԁ a close friend οf mine аחԁ tһеу аƖƖ tеƖƖ mе tһаt i ѕһουƖԁ tһіחk more positively аחԁ ѕtοр worrying over things tһаt i һаνе tο control over аחԁ саחחοt ԁο anything аbουt. Tһеу ѕау even іf i ԁο һаνе recurrence tһеrе іѕ nothing i саח ԁο аחԁ tһаt being depressed аbουt іt wіƖƖ חοt change anything. Aחԁ tһаt i need tο јυѕt mονе οח wіtһ mу life. I аm afraid tһаt once i try doing tһіѕ, i wіƖƖ tһеח һаνе a recurrence аחԁ bе completely devasted. Mу doctor һаѕ tοƖԁ mе tһаt іf іt comes back again tһаt іt wіƖƖ bе uncurable. i аm јυѕt tһе type οf person wһο јυѕt don’t Ɩіkе tο give mу hopes up.
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7 Comments on “Do You Live in Constant Fear of a Cancer Recurrence?”
I do. There isnt a day that goes by that I dont think about it. I have relapsed once, so its on my mind all the time. Your family is right, if it happens there is nothing you can do about it. However, they dont really know what it feels like.
I deal with it by knowing what I think I would do if it happens. I have my plans mapped out. I have the best docs I could hope for. I live my life for myself, not everyone else. And I have a counselor that helps me deal with the fear. I also try to live a healthier life style than I did before cancer.
I dont know if the fear ever goes away. But I encourage you to seek out a counselor or a support group to help you deal with it.
Yes you have to change your way of thinking about this, I had breast cancer in 1999 and I did not let it scare me, and I didn’t worry about, because I just knew it was not going to beat me and I had a lot of faith that God would take care of it, and I also know that the cancer will not return, you have to make your self believe this and do every thing you can to just put it out of your mind, you have to much living to do, Thank God that you are cancer free and the way you think can do wonders, I wish you well and you can do it, God Bless You.Support groups are good for some people but it wasn’t for me because it would have kept the cancer on my mind and I didn’t want to think about it returning because I told my self that it wouldn’t.
I’ve found that even if I don’t admit it outwardly my hopes are already wishing for the best. Denying it and trying to suppress that in my mind, thinking it won’t hurt as deeply should my fears become reality, will not lessen the blow should that happen. It’s a hard place to be. I will be devastated whether I admit my hope to myself or not. We may as well live allowing our hope to blossom outwardly and direct our steps. Trying to keep in the moment will help. This day I am not dieing from cancer. This day I will live my day to the fullest. Cancer changes your life even if you stay cancer free for the rest of it. Letting it rob us of even 1 day that does not belong to it is giving it what it is not entitled to. It’s taken enough from me.
I don’t believe that I live in fear but I do think about it every day. At first my concern for it’s reoccurance had a strong grip on me. I suggest talking with a councilor. People mean well but think positively and get over it are not good advice. Mine helped me to keep my sights on living a good long life and channel my ansiety into energy to keep informed on my cancer and keep up with monitoring it. I did have a reoccurance 4 years later and am now again 1 year cancer free. After this reoccurance I am calmer but as focused on the long term. A cancer chat room and boards like this also help me to keep things in prospective
I was reading this and feeling a little sorry for you. Then I read the last sentence, I think a hearing aid might help. Your doctor most likely said if cancer comes back it will be curable. At least they will keep treating you if you have great insurance.
You might want to see some other great success stories. Google Dave Perkins. I am sure that you are in better health than he was in during the summer of 1999. He found a cure that started to kill his cancer cells.
You might also want to google Dr. Otto Warburg. He found that cancer can be killed by exposing it to high PH environment, and that cancer needs a acidic host. He won a Nobel Prize for this research.
You might want to change to a healthy eating lifestyle that will reduce your chance of getting cancer. I am reading a book called The PH Miracle for Diabetes. By Dr. Young.
He writes that becoming more alkaline is a healthy step, and will help the insulin work better, allowing diabetics to reduce their medication by 50% or more. I think that it will help you live in a more alkaline way, and reduce your chance of hosting cancer again.
I have a friend who is using alkaline water to treat his brain cancer, and is doing very well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cTJZrCy98A
I don’t think we can say anything that your friends have not already said. Let’s look at it this way…let’s say 3 years from now the cancer does come back. What does spending the last 3 years worrying about it do for you? It won’t make you dealing with the cancer any easier…you can just look back and see that you completely wasted your last 3 years of health by sitting home being depressed and worried.
My dad has incurable cancer. He lives every single day to the fullest because he knows he’s not guaranteed tomorrow. His cancer has gone into remission a couple times and he knows for a fact that it will come back. During his remission, he travels and does everything he loves to do.
Maybe you need some counseling. Of course its common to worry that it’ll come back, but you need to set that aside and live life to the fullest! Everybody dies–you don’t know that cancer will be what takes you.
I am so happy for you and sad for you too at the same time. My wife is fighting to be cancer free and what a process it is. Cancer is fear, I will be happy to get to where you are now.
I often think about when we do get the cancer free diagnosis what that will feel like, I imagine that gradually the effects of the chemotherapy will wear off, your hair will begin to grow back, and your energy will return.
What would be great is if you joined a cancer group(we plan on doing this), yours is a story of success and we can never hear too many of those to give us hope. Then I see us getting some some counseling because I am sure that those worries will be there, but they would not dominate our thoughts, we plan to live a normal, healthy lifestyle when we are done fighting the cancer.
I am terrified about going through the processes, you have gone through the worst part successfully, keep happy thoughts. When the fear comes into your mind, just say, “NO MORE!” and move on. That is what I am doing now. It helps, because it does not give negative thoughts power.
But they still enter our minds. Just prevent them from doing it by stopping them as they happen, saying…”that is not me! ”
You have travelled the hardest part of the journey…now enjoy the ride downhill.