Hootie,
I had lots of time to be scared between my doctor scheduling me for my CT scan, and the actual date of it...you gotta start thinking like a SURVIVOR, not a VICTIM.
OH, and my procedure was Dec 21, and they didn't have my results till day after Christmas - talk about ruining your holiday. But guess what? I lived; and got the diagnosis of the Big C on Dec. 26th. Turns out to be a Small C, an almost-insignificant C, but still C, and I will never be afraid of it again!
I went to Google immediately, and read everything I could. Of course, I focused on all the good survival rates I could find -
I had NO pain in my bladder. I peed almost-straight blood twice (or as Greg would say, Claret or Burgundy), 18 months apart, with no infection involved. That's it. Did I EVER think it was cancer? NO. I was 47 yrs old, never smoked, never worked around chemicals, etc... But when they told me it was a distinct possibility, it make NO sense to freak about it, because if it WAS cancer, how the heck was I going to change anything by freaking?
You look FORWARD - if you know your own heart, then you know if you are a survivor or not. I have had alot of adversity in life in the past several years (not healthwise, but just life circumstances), and I said if I lived through that, no CANCER was going to defeat me, especially not a wimpy one like Bladder Cancer, which is soooooooooo survivable.........IF you listen to the doctors and get the tests and procedures done!!!
Be strong, remain fearless!
Lauren
TaG1, 12/06