The Word Of The Day: Scanxiety

According to Webster's dictionary:

Scanxiety - is a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease related to CTs, MRIs or similar medical tests for determining whether cancer exists or has progressed.

Okay, it really is not a word in Webster's dictionary. But it is a word cancer patients (and often their friends and family) know very well.

Winding through cancer visits and scans have a various level of scanxiety. It depends on the timing of the scan and whether it is a benchmark scan in someone's mind. For instance, the first scan after starting chemo had a higher level of scanxiety than other scans during chemo for me. A follow up scan after it appeared that something was growing on my lung had a high scanxiety factor.

Today was a higher scanixety day. When the scan in the fall showed my cancer was back and inoperable, I began alternative therapies (mushrooms/herbs), but they had only been implemented for about 4 weeks before the first follow up scan. The first follow up showed growth in the lymph nodes (which was considered "slow growing") and new spots on my lungs.

As of today's scan, I have three and half months or so of the mushrooms and vitamins being used fairly consistently (long story on the initial start and stop) and about 3 months of consistent exercise in the form of triathlon training.

In my mind this is a benchmark. There is a part of me that believes this will slow things down or perhaps I may even see a reduction. You try to not get hopes up too much because it makes the bad news worse. The few times I got hopeful (i.e., like when I thought my first two year plus scan was going to be clean and I beat it, but it wasn't) never worked out. But I will see. Though I guessing the scans have been read already, I will not know the results for 4-7 days. Scanxiety.


@iTri4aCure