Recurrence: The Fear of Every Cancer Survivor
After treatment has ended and survivors try to resume their lives, the single most prevalent thought that seems to never go away is, “Is my cancer coming back?”
It’s the conclusion we jump to when we feel a pain or learn of someone else’s recurrence. A chilling voice creeps into our minds sowing seeds of fear that the thing we dread most will come to pass.
The likelihood of recurrence depends on many things: the kind of cancer, the stage, the treatment, and many mysteries of cancer no one understands. Some aggressive cancers, such as ovarian cancer, are particularly tough to control. Between 70% and 90% of women with the disease will, at some point, have a recurrence and most will have multiple relapses.
So how does one deal with the real fear of recurrence and not have it consume our lives? Having my cancer return several times myself, I know too well the stress of waiting, worrying and wondering. Before long, your life can become miserable if you don’t have some tools to help.
But how to quiet the voices? Ah, now that’s the question . . .
Here are a few things that I’ve learned over two decades living with cancer:
Worrying achieves nothing. It won’t change the test or make the diagnosis better.
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I truly love reading your articles. They uplift me every single time.
Annette ~ Your empathy with cancer survivors and willingness to share your personal journey always helps to quiet my mind about my own fear of the unknown and always serves as a reminder to me to take things as they come and live each day to the fullest.
Annette, You say everything I try to live and you do it so well. God bless you for all you do. Dona H.
Annette, inspiring as always!
Your words are inspiring and hopeful - I hope am able to keep my head up like you do. It gets kind of hard sometimes and then I remember- LIFE is hard sometimes. Everyone's got their own garbage to deal with - whether it's cancer or some other life situation. Thank you for your words of inspiration!