Hi, Tiger. Here are a few strategies that help me, when I'm worried. Maybe one of them will help you.
1. I ask, "Do I actually have a problem right now?" And then, "Is there something I can do about it?" Most of the time, the answer to the first question is no, because worry is all about some imagined disaster in the future. In the present, there actually is no problem. It can help to remind myself of that. The second question leads to one of two options: either doing something about it, if you can, or, if you can't, then accepting your inability to control the situation and turning it over to God, your higher power, the universe, whatever works for you. Serenity Prayer time.
2. Accepting the anxiety as natural. I remind myself that human beings (all animals, really) have been bred for anxiety, for a hair-trigger alarm system that will go off much more often than is realistically warranted, because from an evolutionary perspective, it's better to be overly worried than too relaxed. Worried cavemen survived and bred. Cool, relaxed cavemen got eaten. So, we are highly talented at scaring ourselves with catastrophic scenarios. The worry (and lots of false alarms) is natural.
3. "Catastrophizing" is one of the cognitive distortions that characterize anxiety. Imagining catastrophes. In most cases (80%), the thing turns out to be much less awful than we imagine.
4. Even when it does turn out bad, we characteristically underestimate our ability to cope with it. Human beings are very resilient. If you think back on your life, I'm sure you've been through some sh*t, and you've been able to handle it.
5. As a way to practice resiliency in advance, I sometimes imagine that the worst happens, and then think how would I deal with that. One way I'd deal is to think about the benefits of the ordeal. Most ordeals have an upside, after all. For instance, illness can make you focus on what really matters in life, let go of concerns about ego or trivia, deepen your life, appreciate things more, etc. I've found it helpful to reflect on that. Even if the worst happens, I can deal with it, and there will even be some good things about it.
6. Don't fight the worry, and don't take it too seriously. This is really key, I think. It's important how you respond to worry. Some people take it very seriously. Some people try to fight it and suppress it. Those things just make it worse. It is better to take a casual, nonchalant, even humorous approach. Think of worry like a nagging neighbor who keeps saying the same thing every day. Worry is tedious, because it contains no new information, yet keeps coming up over and over. Think to yourself, "Yeah, yeah, there's my worry again. I hear you," and treat it like you would a nag. You've heard all this before. You can even joke about it. When I was worried about heart disease, I would say to myself, "Yeah, I'd better make an appointment with the morgue right away." It would make me chuckle. The trick is to not take worry so seriously. Most of the time, it's just a repetitive nag containing no new information. We get into trouble because we take it too seriously, as if the worry itself means there is some imminent catastrophe we must respond to immediately.
Anyhow, I wish you the best. I know health scares can be frightening. I've had a couple of them myself, and I always have to brush up on my anxiety coping skills. I'm a bit of a natural worrier, so I've had to work at it.
I should add, though, that a certain point, I've also found that further "work" on my worry just reinforced it by focusing my attention on the matter. At that point, I found it more helpful to turn my attention elsewhere (e.g., to keeping a good attitude more generally).