What is your favourite method for coping?

[livia]

Hi all,

I'm in the middle of a 4 month exacerbation of my HA... it's been breast cancer for the last year. I have had pain in my breast for 4 months, had all the tests, but I think it's inflammatory breast cancer. Now I'm dizzy, so I must have mets to the brain and my pelvis hurts a bit every now and again, so mets to pelvis too (I worry).

In the past I've worried about throat/mouth cancer and MS.

I just thought it might be useful for all of us to share our most effective method for overcoming an exacerbation? Mine is usually distraction...I lose my dizziness, don't notice the pain etc. It's hard and tiring to distract myself 24 hours a day though!

Thanks and regards,
Livia.

[Darwin73]

When I'm preoccupied I certainly feel that pain lessons, but I can never distract myself from the worry at the back of my mind.

I find it really hard to reconcile the fact that the brain can make you feel pain even if there is no organic cause.

I suppose my best way of coping is to think that "this time last year, I was convinced I had xyz, but that proved to be nothing after all, so hopefully my current worry will turn out to be nothing too"

[livia]

Darwin73, you are right. I have had this argument with myself a million times...pain must mean SOMETHING!

The only time distraction is absolute is when I'm doing something that requires the utmost concentration...like an exam or teaching or something like that. But those are rare occurrences.

I've also tried "this time last year" and it works but after a while my stupid mind says "yes, but this time is different and my symptoms this time are so much more convincing". It's funny, because I look back at my last set of symptoms and can see how it was silly to believe that they meant something serious, but when I'm in it, I don't have that level of distance from my emotions.

I think your method is really workable in that it positively challenges one's ability to interpret symptoms by providing egs of when you have got it wrong in the past.

[Darwin73]

You're right though Livia that each time a new set of symptoms present themsleves, you initially think "ok, I may have been wrong in the past, but this one has to be a real illness". It's a real loop to be caught in. My worst one was a few years ago, where I experienced symptoms of MND and the worry took nearly 2 years out of my life. Even friends could see my muscles twitching independently, so how could it not be that? However, since the symptoms got no worse, I gradually stopped worrying about it and wierdly the muscles don't twitch much anymore. Even when they do, it doesn't concern me.

Now I can't stop thinking about cancer (that's my usual concern) again. Wish we could take a worry holiday!