The routine checkups for recurrence can be terrifying, as can the question of whether or not a new health problem signals the return of cancer. One of the best ways to deal with this fear is through a support group or with a psychotherapist who works extensively with cancer patients. If this fear is talked over with other patients living with the same problem, it often diminishes. It is also a part of the process that leads one to a deeper appreciation of life, which can diminish the fear of death and therefore the fear of recurrence. For people who have been actively using complementary therapies or living a consciously healthy life since the initial diagnosis, the recurrence can be doubly devastating because they often feel their efforts were in vain.
Recurrence renews the whole cycle of choices about physicians and therapies.
It also plunges many people deeper into choices in complementary therapies. And it raises many of the issues of pain control and dying. Dying We all die. Whether or not we die of cancer, we all face the prospect of death someday. The antipodes that many people experience in facing death are the wish to fight intensively for life and the wish to achieve a peaceful acceptance of death.