6. Follow Up Testing

We hope these blogs from one of our members will remind you that you are not alone and that others understand exactly what you are going through.

The first year you are counting the days to your follow-up scans. Every time you have a twinge, for one brief moment, you think it might be back. It’s like mourning the loss of someone close. One day you realize you’ve gone a week without thinking about it. Then you go a month.  

BUT, is there one week out of the year when you regress to new patient paranoia?  It seems that no matter how many years out you are, test week brings you down a peg.  

For some, it starts a week or so ahead; for others the night before; for others the morning of.  But we all have the same thing in common.  Our hearts and our brains do not connect.  We’ve had great doctors and state-of-the-art treatment.  We lead healthy lifestyles.  We’ve done everything in our power to avoid recurrence. The percentage of recurrence, based on my treatment is (damn what was that negligible number again). But, what if…

You flash back to the very first time the technician said, “Mrs. C, they would like to review your images” or “They would like to retake your tests from a different angle.” Are you talking to ME? 

So, back in the present, you try meditating, deep breathing, maybe a Margarita. Or, (here it comes again) you call someone who has been through it and knows exactly how you are feeling!  And you find out, one more time, that you are not the only one in pre-test meltdown.

It’s 1 or 2 days out of 365. We can do this! We will not cry! Yeah, we will. But in 24 hours, it will just be a memory.