If you wait for symptoms your survival rate is less than half of what it is when you find it early. So while I know the fear of finding out something that can be life changing is terrifying, it is far more scary to not know and find out when it’s too late. After each year passes you have the elephant in the room growing because you know you didn’t go the year before. Every year will be scarier than the year before if you continue to push it aside. I speak from experience. I can tell you first hand that when you don’t go – it doesn’t stop growing. I know this because I lost my Mom at the age of 59 and my sister at the age of 51 both to cancer. Both very treatable conditions, but they refused to go to the doctor. Because of my mother’s death, my sister felt doomed. Instead of catching something very early and treating it, she let it grow to the point of no saving her. I have learned from their mistakes and go to every appointment I need to. But it doesn’t make me any less scared. I know every time the results I hear have the potential to be bad news. But I would rather know and deal with it, and God willing put it behind me, than not face it until it’s too late.