cancer

The appointment was supposed to be routine. Or maybe it wasn't routine. Maybe you'd been worried, maybe something had felt wrong for a while but nothing had prepared you for the moment the words landed. The way the room shifted. The way your mind went somewhere else while the oncologist kept talking. The way you drove home, or sat in the parking lot, or called someone, and realized that something had fundamentally changed and you couldn't change it back. A cancer diagnosis do

If you've ever had cancer — or are currently in treatment — you probably know this feeling without needing a name for it. The scan is scheduled. Somewhere in the days or weeks before it, something shifts: sleep gets harder, every twinge becomes evidence, and a low hum of dread settles in that you can't reason your way out of. This is scanxiety — the intense anxiety cancer patients and survivors feel in anticipation of follow-up scans, imaging, or results. For many, it's the h