My next scan is on Tuesday 30th April 2024
Scanxiety – a term first coined by a patient writing for Time magazine in 2011. Scanxiety describes the distress before, during and after a cancer-related scan. This term can be used to describe any form of scan/test as the emotions relate.
Every year around April time, I go on an intensified cleanse – mind, body, spirit.
Springtime is one of the best times to do a body cleanse, it matches the seasons and what is going on in the world in the UK. The days are longer, we get up in the light and the evenings encourage us to stay up longer. Spring bounces into our lives following many months of dark, cold, wet, damp wintertime, which is where we spend time going underground, regrouping, and generally resting.
Life is in full flow, the flowers start appearing, the birds are busy feeding and building their nests, lambs appear in the fields, the whole of nature is rejoicing. And we get to see the sun! (well sometimes!!) For me, my whole being feels more alive and ready for life going forward.
Why do I do this?
In November 2017 I received a breast cancer diagnosis, and every year around April, I start the process of undergoing my yearly tests to ensure that I am still on course and that everything is well. Before I undertake these tests, blood tests, thermogram imaging etc., I tighten up my life.
I pay particular attention to my diet, cutting out the baddies that may have been creeping in such as cake, or alcohol, or too much fat. I increase my intake of fresh juices, vegetables, and salads. I up my supplement protocols. I WANT TO BE THE BEST VERSION OF MYSELF BEFORE I UNDERGO THE TESTS.
I work on my mindset, being aware of what stress may have been creeping back into my life, I meditate more and move more. I increase daily positive affirmations where I visualize the results coming back normal, or balanced.
I do all this too to help with managing the natural scanxiety that anyone who must undergo scans/blood tests for testing some form of illness will know only too well. Do the words fear, anxiety, uncertainty resonate with you too?
What if treating yourself to a spring-clean as you would do your house, helps relieve some of these emotions? It is worth a try, get lost in the empowerment of consciously creating a healthy you.
It is incredible how the fear of what possibly might be revealed creeps into our minds, at night when you are in bed, during the day, this unwanted feeling will just land like a lead weight on your chest.
What if? What if? What it? We start running through different scenarios through our mind like clockwork. What if the cancer has returned? What if the cancer has spread? What if something different is revealed? How will I cope? Can I go through all this again? Do I have the strength, the willpower, and the resources to start all over again?
As humans we naturally feel uncomfortable going for a medical appointment and this is sometimes referred to as ‘white coat syndrome’ – according to the NHS ‘feeling anxious or stressed when you visit your GP can raise your blood pressure, often referred to as white coat syndrome’.
Before we even reach the room where the scan/blood test takes place we can naturally be off kilter with our blood pressure rising. Our heart begins to race, and we get that fight or flight feeling. Now is the time to take some deep breaths to switch the sympathetic nervous (fight or flight) system over to the parasympathetic nervous (rest and digest) system. By deep breathing we control our heart rate, we remove that primordial need to ‘get out of there’ and once we relax our bodies can return to the natural state of homeostasis.
Some medical professionals are great at understanding this and will help you relax before everything begins, some unfortunately are so used to carrying out their ‘work’ that they sometimes forget that they are dealing with a very worried, vulnerable person, who just needs that little extra reassurance. It isn’t the procedure itself; it is the ramifications of the results that are bothering us.
Once done, we return home, the WAIT BEGINS. I personally find this period the most difficult. It is here that my mind likes to conjure up the biggest WHAT IF’s. I feel irritable, need to isolate myself from people, don’t want to socialise much, and just want to stay in bed.
The results arrive – they are good, stable, or worse.
Now we can spring into action accordingly, a renewed resurgence of energy – if it is good we rejoice, if it is stable we are again content to keep going forward, if it is worse we must dig deep, think rationally, engage with the necessary professionals, our loved ones, ourselves, but never give up. A new challenge with a renewed vigor to keep going.
