Anxiety after diagnosis

I am sorry you are having such a difficult time especially with the very heartless and impersonal way your diagnosis was given.. I can't help you with any advice but I wanted to suggest you try to find a colon cancer group in the lists and ask again where people might be more informative. 

There are one or two people here who have had both breast and colon cancer but I'm not sure exactly who. 

I think your anxiety is completely normal. It is one area that I can emphasize with. Even now, almost five years since my breast cancer was removed by lumpectomy and I was technically cancer free, I have ' what if' days ...........but you will probably find, as most of us do, that once you have definite plans for your treatment and it begins...you will have a focus and some of the anxiety will be relieved.

I hope things go well for you and you can find the specific answers you need for your particular cancer.

Love Karen

P. S. 

There is a group for colon and rectal cancers. I went to the lists and it is under the heading Bowel cancers. If you search under the Groups  heading .....it should come up. .  ...Hope it can help you.

Thank you, it’s the mental aspect and how to come that I need immediate help with now

Hi Nick,

I very much hope you have been able to find some extra support for your diagnosis on here but I just couldn’t scroll past and leave your post. Getting any kind of cancer diagnosis regardless of oncological reassurance about the type etc is world shattering. It is absolutely normal to feel so devastated. You will struggle to sleep and eat and interact with others initially until you have processed the news. Give yourself lots of time and space to do this and don’t stop talking to your family.

My next thought after the initial fallout from diagnosis was that I absolutely refused to give the cancer any more power than it already had - for me that meant being absolutely candid about talking about it and telling my work colleagues, friends, family that it was ok to ask or to talk to me about the cancer. The more I talked about it the more I felt it’s power was diluted (if that makes sense). The worst thing you can do is bottle it up and kind of make a ‘secret’ of it - secrets have power over you. 

Next you need information. I wanted to  see the scans, biopsy report, lab reports etc - that was my way of getting it out in the open and coping. Too often medics don’t see why you might need to know about the technicalities of your illness but I found it helped hugely. I have a nursing background so that helped me interpret the information but if you have a friend or relative with a background in health, that may be a good resource to tap into. A friend or relative will more likely have time to sit with you also where an outpatient’s appointment feels time constrained and you feel you have to ‘get on with’ it as there are other patients waiting. That person may not be an expert in this field but can assist you with considering what questions to ask. Failing that, people on here may be able to help also.

Allow yourself to feel whatever you are feeling - it’s normal and natural to feel afraid - you are facing an existential threat - it would not be normal not to feel like crying and being frightened. Your family will do whatever they can to help you - let them know that just listening and giving you a hug can be enough. Never underestimate the power of being loved, listened to and hugged. 

You have got this, I promise you are way, way stronger than you think you are.

Take care and best of luck for tomorrow x

Hi Nick,  if you are  still struggling with the anxiety of the diagnosis I recommend contacting the Macmillan nurse at thr hospital treating you tomorrow.  They should be able to make an urgent referral (through the team now treating you if required), as many people find that helpful.  It's early days and a big shock. 

The positive thing is that you've already had scans which show only the  two areas, thr larger of which is now gone. With breast cancer lots of us have to wait for staging scans and results after the initial diagnosis our surgery which take weeks,  and for me at least was the very worst part of it!

It sounds like your team are moving forward with your treatment. Have they said if you'll need chemo yet?

Thank you so much , it makes me feel like I am behaving normally and hopefully this madness in my mind will end at some point as it has overcome me!

Thank you I will ask at the hospital, chemo doesn’t work on all liposarcoma so not sure, radiotherapy apparently works better 

Thank you, Deborah James book is also helping me a lot , I just want this to mentally overcome state to pass!