Bone Mets: How Can You Counteract Anxiety with Positive Outlook?

Cancer patients who learn that their disease has metastasized (spread) to the bone – or bone mets, as it is called – often feel like the rug has been pulled out from under them. Demoralization, disorientation, anxiety and depression are normal responses. It is all too easy to anticipate bad things, especially disabling pain. Even a small twinge can trigger such fear that reassuring words from the doctor can’t completely allay a sense of doom.

One reason for not embracing well-meant encouragement from the patient’s doctor or nurse has to do with lack of credibility. Unless the professional caregiver has personally “been there,” his or her encouragement may have a hollow ring to it. On the other hand, messages from other patients currently dealing with bone mets may carry far more weight.

Encouragement is important in order to help bone mets patients avoid caving in to anxiety and pessimism. Such emotional states are normal, perhaps even inevitable, but patients need to be buoyed up in order to invest themselves in ongoing treatments and be open to receiving the love and support of friends and family. It’s crucial to seek out credible “cheerleaders” who themselves have dealt with or are currently dealing with bone mets. Here are a few quotes from online communities of bone mets patients who reach out to new, frightened members:

• Keep a positive attitude and take it as a challenge, not the end of life as you once knew it.
• I have a lot to be thankful for so I am going to keep on fighting.
• I know of two women who were diagnosed with bone mets in the 1990s and are still going strong.
• If you would like to compare notes and share research, please let me know. Many blessings sent your way.
• Know that your healthcare team will work with you to improve the quality of your life.

Another way to cope with worrying about pain is to find out if a new pain control treatment called MRI-guided Focused Ultrasound (MRgFUS) is right for you. This is a noninvasive technology that destroys the nerve source of pain without harming healthy tissues. Under MRI guidance, focused “beams” of ultrasound energy are precisely aimed at the small area where the metastatic lesion involves a nearby nerve. The nerve area where the beams meet is accurately and safely destroyed. Most patients begin to experience relief from pain during the short term after treatment, and the result tends to be durable with few to no side effects. While many bone mets patients never experience unmanageable pain, those who do have reason to maintain a positive outlook, thanks to MRgFUS for bone mets. Many patients have experienced this treatment as nothing short of miraculous or revolutionary. The Sperling Medical Group is proud to offer MRgFUS. Contact us to learn if this FDA-cleared treatment can help you.