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has spread to other places? I can’t afford to lose my other kidney! The medication’s side effects are bad enough already, so what if they have to increase my doses? I don’t want my young son to grow up without his daddy around!” These thoughts and more would keep me in a state of panic for weeks before a scan. The night before the scan, I couldn’t sleep. The morning of the scan, I would vomit in the bathroom until we had to go to the appointment. The fear never left until the doctor told us that I was still in NED status (no evidence of disease), but this could be days or weeks after the scans. For me, this ebb and flow of mild-to-severe anxiety came every three months or so and lasted for three years before the cancer came back. Now that I am officially in stage 4 cancer, the old anxieties are back. Now, I find myself in a state of panic until Some patients feel tremendous anxiety each time they have a medical scan. Everyone has anxiety from time to time, but anxiety felt all the time is classified as a disorder.

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Introduction to Anxiety Disorders