Scanxiety

Tomorrow is MRI and BTC (Brain Tumor Clinic) day at Dana Farber. The days leading up to a scan can cause anxiety that many cancer patients (and parents of pediatric cancer patients) have termed SCANXIETY.

I was reading a list of ways to deal with scanxiety tonight and laughed at their number one way to deal with scanxiety: DISTRACTION. I laughed because we certainly had a lot to distract us last week.

Last Monday, KK and I went over my parents' house to see my aunt and uncle who were visiting from Florida. When we got there, we found out that something happened over the weekend and my uncle was not doing well. My dad and aunt wanted to bring him to the hospital, but he was unable to walk so we called 911 and they brought him to Leominster Hospital. The whole experience brought up a lot of emotion for KK -- sadness, anger, frustration -- as she remembered ambulance rides, ER visits, being told she was going home then having emergency surgery. My dad encouraged her to stop crying and she told him she could cry if she wanted to (hmm, I wonder where she got that from?!?). When we left the ER, KK and I talked and she was able to process her feelings as we drove home. She said, "It felt good to cry." We spent the rest of the week visiting Uncle Dave at the hospital after work/KK's treatments.

The distraction worked to a certain extent, since I was too tired to think of anything by the end of each day. However, I would rather not use this coping mechanism to deal with scanxiety again. I would much rather cope with scanxiety by doing what God tells us to do with any anxiety:

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

~ 1 Peter 5:7

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

~ Philippians 4:6-7