Just got off phone with consultant regarding 12 month scan and she is happy with results and positive. Due to my ongoing back pain she wants to order a PET scan and refer me to pain clinic. She said the scan is to confirm what she thinks but obviously my mind going into overdrive. I know CT are faulty accurate and I've had 3 scans and all have been positive, so im
trying to not let myself get worked up. This is just next stage of my journey and trying to figure out what is causing the pain! I suppose pet scans just scare me because of the hot spots etc.
Trying to remain positive! It's not been an easy ride
I had terrible back pain post treatment. In many ways it felt exactly like the back pain that led to my diagnosis. It wasn't. I think that fear of recurrence post treatment took me a while to get on top of. My whole head was focussed on cancer. I got extra CT scans, too. All came back clear.
If you sum up the proceeding few months post my treatment, the sum total is anxiety and shock. I was more frightened *after* my treatment, which I think is quite common.
I know that doesn't help you, but after all's said and done, it takes time to realise how you can move past cancer and it's side effects. You can only get past the anxiety about recurrence in due time. Then you have to get past the side-effects. It's a slow slow process, but it gets easier, for some people faster than others!
I haven't had the same problem with back pain but I can empathise with the anxiety of waiting for scan results. I had my 9 month pet/ct and mri on the 24/7 and get my results next week. These early days can be really hard. Either worrying about a new ache or pain, anxiety about an upcoming scan or that horrible anxious feeling waiting for results. I got a bout of food poisoning from a takeaway in April and spend the following three months in chronic pain. I would usually get over something like this in 24/48 hours but post radiation is definitely different. Apart from this my side effects have been quite manageable so I can't complain too much. I'm hoping that the further we move away from the end of our treatment the less anxiety we will feel. I hope you find some answers to your problem soon.
