Hi all. I finished treatment (chemo after surgery) for Stage 3 colon cancer about 10 months ago. My first couple of surveillance scans have been clear, which is amazing and I know I should be relieved. But honestly? The fear of recurrence (FoR) feels like it’s constantly stalking me. Every little ache, pain, cough, weird feeling sends my anxiety into overdrive, convinced this is it. It’s exhausting and feels like it’s stealing the ‘second chance’ I supposedly have. Does this intense level of fear ever get better? How do you live alongside this uncertainty without letting it take over?
Therapy, therapy, therapy. Specifically cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) techniques helped me challenge the automatic negative thoughts (“this ache = cancer”) and replace them with more realistic ones (“this ache could be muscle strain, overexertion, sleeping weird… cancer is just one possibility, and not the most likely one right now”).