Got your drift ...

Dear lauren -
questions are what life is about. What to do when, and why?? Take an example like grocery shopping. The store is open usually for the better part of 24 hours. Some like to get there before breakfast and have the widest choice of the items that have been stocked during the night. The freshest bread, the best produce, etc. Others come at other times of the day that suits them. Some folks like to come in the evening when it is less crowded.
So it is with our cancer vigilance. Once we have it, we know it is there and must be dealt with just as we have to eat.
At my cancer center, once there is a diagnosis, and treatment has finished, there is a proscribed schedule of follow up. The oncs have a basic plan for everyone and can modifiy it as needed. There are chest x-rays, blood draws, and tumor marker checks (no matter what anyone says, these can be very useful in discovering a problem, as in MY case).
It was the higher number in my routine marker test at three months after rads that led to my scans (plus the physical exam that showed some liver distress). WITHOUT symptoms I had a major case of mets to liver and starting into long bones. It was actually while waiting for the test and onc visit that I had my first sideache from swelling in my liver capsule. Had not felt a thing when I went for the port flush and blood draw the week before.
I CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH HOW SNEAKY THIS DISEASE IS. That is the reason for the clinics offering routine tests - especially for HER2 patients. They have long experience and are really wanting to give GOOD news instead of bad to their patients.
Routine testing can make your life actually easier if you look at it the same way you look at going to the dentist to check your teeth. It needs to be done on some level.
With cancer it is not quite that simple, but catching a problem before it develops too far IS still the key, even with the amazing new drugs and other treatments.
To scan/test or not to scan/test - or alas, poor Yorick, I knew him well.