The Case of the Anxiety Answer

Kris is a 46-year-old newly diagnosed with stage III cervical cancer. She is an avid runner and vegetarian, and she believes strongly in taking care of herself. “I never thought I would get cancer,” she says. “I thought I did everything I could to avoid this.”

She has been married to her husband for 18 years, and together they have three children. She is scheduled to begin pelvic external-beam radiation therapy and concurrent cisplatin at the clinic today.

When Robin, the clinic nurse, goes to the waiting room, she finds Kris’s husband sitting alone. He tells Robin that Kris left and he thinks she is probably walking around outside the hospital. “She has really bad anxiety sometimes, that’s why I think she runs as much as she does; it really helps. I don’t know if she can endure being cooped up in here.”