Coping with Scanxiety: A Lung Cancer Patient's Guide

Scan plus anxiety equals scanxiety. Scanxiety is a very well-known word and commonly used in the lung cancer community. Most of us have already endured one or more surgeries, chemotherapy treatments, radiation therapy, immunotherapy, and oxygen therapy. For most, we get scans every three months. For many of us with lung cancer, these scans cause tremendous stress and anxiety, which can wreak havoc on us as patients and our caregivers. Scanxiety can leave us unable to sleep, eat, or just function in general.

Waiting for lung cancer scan results

The anticipation of the upcoming scan day causes significant worry, and having to wait on the results can truly be debilitating for some. It is always on your mind whether the scans are going to show stable, NED (No Evidence of Disease), or dreadful progression. I was diagnosed In November 2015 and I’ve had countless scans and then the horrible wait for the results.

Once, because of a mix-up at the cancer center, it was even three or four weeks before I received my brain MRI results. Normally, I get my results the following week. I know some who get their results the same day. That mix-up happened to me recently, and let me be honest: it caused a lot of worry and stress.

Practical coping strategies for scanxiety and stress

I know stress is not good and I try hard not to dwell on it. Over the years, if I start feeling the scanxiety coming on, I try to redirect. I redirect those feelings by walking or going to the park if the weather permits. Having lunch with friends is another way to redirect. I even went with my granddaughter to get coloring books and crayons to color. Hey, that is really therapeutic too.

Mental health and redirecting stress during the wait

Although the redirecting of emotional stress is only a short-term relief at times, I think of it this way: look how much of my time was spent free of emotional stress. Some of us start having scanxiety weeks before the scans and all the way until the day we get the results. Others only have scanxiety after the scans while awaiting the results.

I had gotten to where I wasn’t really experiencing scanxiety as much anymore. I had put it in my mind that I cannot stress because it will not change the outcome. I will deal with the results when I get the results. My favorite redirect therapy is puzzles and crosswords.

The fear of scans and progression is very real

The word scanxiety doesn’t do justice to the real meaning behind that word. It’s more than just the hope of no progression or being stable. We want to hear news like "shrinking" or NED. Scanxiety is caused by the mental abuse that cancer has caused us. The emotional abuse we feel knowing we have a potentially fatal disease. Cancer can be a crippling emotional rollercoaster for our minds.

Scanxiety is a relatively new lung cancer word that I see being used more and more in all cancer communities. The fear of scans. The fear of the results and the fear of progression runs deep in our hearts. The dreaded scanxiety!