Hi Scared:
Welcome to the family. I understand how you feel right now, so many questions, so many worries, so much to think about.

I expect you feel this way because you know very little about your cancer, what caused it, how it is treated, what will the side effects of radiation, or chemo, or both at the same time be. We all felt that way when we were standing in your shoes. Some of us worried about all of this a lot, others not so much.

In one way or another we found the forum and started asking questions, just like you are doing. We all had to be told, stop worrying so much. It is what it is, worrying about it won't make it go away any quicker or be any easier to handle. Worrying will raise your stress level and it can make you unable to sleep at night, especially if you are the type to worry when you are laying there in bed before going to sleep. That was me, for a few nights that's when I would worry. But, I also was usually very tired when I went to bed, so it became easy to say to myself, I'm tired, I'll worry about this tomorrow after I sleep tonight. And guess what, when tomorrow came, I would get up, get busy with all I needed to do that day, and never worry about it then either.

But, I suppose the biggest help this forum family provided was education about cancer, and it's treatment. They told me to not only read the forum posts made by others, but also to spend time on the OCF web pages, where a tremendous amount of information lives, much of it is stuff that will answer your questions. So, I'll tell you the same as they told me, go over there and start reading. With knowledge comes power; power over the worry that comes from lack of knowledge.

This is all so new for you right now. Spend a few hours of concentrated reading, you may be very amazed at how the worry will just go away.

take care, we will be here for you every step of the way.

Tony