Waiting for Pathology Results

Hello everyone,

My lovely partner was diagnosed with colon cancer some six weeks ago now. The pathology from the colonoscopy showed fragments of severe dysplasia suspicious of adenocarcinoma. Severe dysplasia was also found in other areas of the colon. The CT seemed okay, apart from a 3mm nodule on the lung, which we were told could be the result of infection and not a cause for concern. He had major surgery four weeks ago (panprotocolectomy) as he has Lynch Syndrome.

However, the post-surgery pathology report still hasn't been done. My partner is taking a pragmatic, day-to-day approach to this; I am constantly anxious, am having nightmares and I can't sleep properly. I don't want to add to his stress by talking about this too much, but it's always on my mind Initially, we were told that it would take a fortnight for the results to come through. I found out last week that there is a backlog in the lab. I don't want to add to his stress by talking about this too much, but it's always on my mind.

His case was due to be brought up a fortnight ago at the MDT meeting, then last week, but was postponed as the pathology report hadn't been done. He's due to be discussed this week and is to be seen next week at the clinic.d

I don't want to add to his stress by talking about this too much in front of him, but it's always on my mind.

My question is, how does one cope with the uncertainty of waiting for results? I have been trying to garner information about what might lie ahead, but we are just told to wait for the pathology report. I'm so anxious and teary all the time now.

Thank you so much for reading this.