Scanxiety: How did you get through scanxiety?

Do not fetch about this. I’ve have scans ever 3 months. Only thing I hate is during 4 - 16oz bottles of water following. That’s to get dye out of systems. Next day you get the facts. One way to look at it you’ll know what’s their. Prayers!

@richcolleen- I get this! But I'd rather have to wait a day for an accurate final radiologist's report than an immediate guess. I'm ashamed to say that I don't drink enough water after my CT. What I do is increase my intake until I'm maybe 1 glass more than usual. I don't think that you really need to drink enough water to float away on.

@ta52- Same with me. I just received great news about my recent CT scan. I find that they are all important.

Was told water is important to flush dye out of kidneys. Try hard and always get 3 plus down. Yes lots of running to bathroom.

Colleen- Water is important and you should drink it after to flush your kidneys. I responded about what I do and if I indicated in any way not to I apologize.

@merpreb Merry - Not sure if it makes a difference but my scan is at Mayo and the radiologist and doctor read the scan the same day. My scan is at 10:00 and my doctor's consult is at 1:15 the same day. Mayo can be a machine at times but in a good way. You have you blood work results, for example, in less than a half hour.
The scanxiety stems from the fact that this is the first one after my first round of treatment. It's not the test but what the test will show (or not show) that's nerve wracking.

@ta52- Ah, ha! It is very important for sure, and special. I remember feeling this way after my last round of chemo too. My first question was, did it work?

@merpreb That's it exactly. I had some clavicular tumors that have shrunk but that doesn't necessarily mean they've gone away. You know it's somewhere between completely gone and no progress but you just want to know where. We did the work now what's the result? How did you get through scanxiety?

@ta52- You just go minute by minute if necessary. It's scary and curling up on/in your bed might be a good solution with a good book. We don't have to be superpowers who conqueror everything, tolerate everything, cope with everything. Sometimes we just have to let go, become hysterical (or not) and then we go from there. I have PTSD so I've used this many times. Did it work for me? Not a lot but it's what came to mind at the time. I might have been better off as a superpower, walking, or doing weights, conquering a mountain. I just didn't feel like it.

Not surprisingly, scanxiety is an often discussed topic. Here are a couple of related discussions:
- Waiting for scan results. Is this part of scanxiety? https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/waiting-for-scan-results-is-this-part-of-scanxiety/
– Coping with anxiety while waiting https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/coping-with-anxiety-while-waiting/

@ta52, I love your question "How did you get through scanxiety?" In fact, I added that question to the title of this discussion and added it to the Cancer: Managing Symptoms group as well as the Lung Cancer group. It's a good question to help gather tips from fellow members.

@roch @earscan @bluelagoon @grandpabob @Paula_MAC2007 @klpetts @bruto1 How do you get through scanxiety? What tips do you offer?

I had so many tests in the beginning that I couldn't prioritize them. I found out later a Nurse Navigator was the answer to get through all the exams in the beginning which go to pinpoint your cancer and give you dimensions which can be researched. I took it one step at a time and every time I got a report, I looked up synopsis and what would be considered normal. This cut down on "no surprises" and made the results from my doctor more acceptable. May not work for everyone, but it worked for me.