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Debbie L. · 08-18-2012, 06:43 AM

Hi again, Kristin (I replied to the AI thread just now). Maybe we're the only ones up this morning.

First of all, I don't know this from my personal experience, but from that of friends. There are many ways to live with advanced breast cancer -- many "styles".

Some women (and men) are most comfortable with lots of MD visits, lots of tests and scans -- they feel they are staying on top of things that way, and will catch progression quickly, change treatment early-on, and keep progression under control.

Other women feel that frequent MD visits, tests and scans only keep them in a heightened state of anxiety, without offering any real survival benefit to them. They also often use the analogy of a toolbox of treatments available to them. They say that they don't want to use up their tools any faster than they absolutely have to -- that staying on the current treatment until they are sure it is failing them will give them more time overall. They are comfortable waiting for symptoms of progression (and they do check them out when they appear, they don't ignore symptoms).

And then of course, there's most people, who take more of a middle-of-the-road approach.

No one approach is the right one for all. It's more of a style preference, and sometimes people will have to shop around for an oncologist whose style is a good match, to make this personalized thing work best. So your job is to decide what works best for you. Maybe you'll decide that you don't want to do tumor markers, or maybe you'll decide that you're more comfortable with some information on the table -- your choice, your decision.

The other thing that can help somewhat with test anxiety (at least it did for me), is to remind yourself that the future is uncertain (for everyone, but cancer heightens that awareness). I would say to myself "my lifetime might be shorter than I thought -- do I want to waste even one precious moment of it fretting about something I cannot change?". Sometimes that would be enough to snap me out of the obsessing (not always, but often enough and with practice I got better at it).

Thinking of you, sending love and good thoughts,
Debbie Laxague

08-18-2012, 06:43 AM	#2
Debbie L. Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 463	Re: Obsessed with tumor marker number? Hi again, Kristin (I replied to the AI thread just now). Maybe we're the only ones up this morning. First of all, I don't know this from my personal experience, but from that of friends. There are many ways to live with advanced breast cancer -- many "styles". Some women (and men) are most comfortable with lots of MD visits, lots of tests and scans -- they feel they are staying on top of things that way, and will catch progression quickly, change treatment early-on, and keep progression under control. Other women feel that frequent MD visits, tests and scans only keep them in a heightened state of anxiety, without offering any real survival benefit to them. They also often use the analogy of a toolbox of treatments available to them. They say that they don't want to use up their tools any faster than they absolutely have to -- that staying on the current treatment until they are sure it is failing them will give them more time overall. They are comfortable waiting for symptoms of progression (and they do check them out when they appear, they don't ignore symptoms). And then of course, there's most people, who take more of a middle-of-the-road approach. No one approach is the right one for all. It's more of a style preference, and sometimes people will have to shop around for an oncologist whose style is a good match, to make this personalized thing work best. So your job is to decide what works best for you. Maybe you'll decide that you don't want to do tumor markers, or maybe you'll decide that you're more comfortable with some information on the table -- your choice, your decision. The other thing that can help somewhat with test anxiety (at least it did for me), is to remind yourself that the future is uncertain (for everyone, but cancer heightens that awareness). I would say to myself "my lifetime might be shorter than I thought -- do I want to waste even one precious moment of it fretting about something I cannot change?". Sometimes that would be enough to snap me out of the obsessing (not always, but often enough and with practice I got better at it). Thinking of you, sending love and good thoughts, Debbie Laxague