Fear of recurrence can be a strong motivator or demotivator, depending on your action style. 

 In cancer truth 128 I talked about preferences. How much information do you want or need to get or NOT get when it comes to a diagnosis or treatment. The same is true when it comes to fear of recurrence. We can do the ostrich routine and pretend whatever set off those warning bells isn’t there. Or we can get a check up to voice concerns and make sure we are checking all of our wellness/wellbeing boxes.

I would argue that quieting the bells with facts is supporting our wellbeing, maybe more specifically our mental wellbeing. 

My recent surgery was actually born out of exactly this. I thought something was off, ironically as a result of my original cancer treatment so when I was in for my annual checkup I voiced the concern. My doctor was not at all concerned, however, he wanted to check all the boxes to alleviate my concerns. Love that in my doctors.

After the first round of box checking my doctor became more concerned than I was and given my cancer history he was not going to let it go. After several more items of box checking our fears were calmed when everything was benign, however, the potential for that to change in the future was not insignificant so we agreed my initial request was indeed the right one.

I cannot express enough how important good doctor/patient relationships are and the importance of these being two sided conversations. Fear of recurrence is not just something we face; our providers are also facing it on our behalf.

Have you raised a concern regarding something causing a fear of recurrence? How has it been received?

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