Pre-and Postoperative Stress Coping : Comparison of Patient Treated by Mastectomy or Breast Conserving Therapy

Abstract

Abstract

The purpose of this study was...to describe the stress-coping and make clear the different and the same point in stress-coping before and after the patients who have or had an operation on mastectomy or breast conserving.

The subjects were 24 patients (8 patients who need or needed an operation on mastectomy and 16 patients who need or needed an operation on breast conserving) who were informed that they had gotten breast cancer. Interview and participant observation methods were used to collect the deat. In consequence, I got the following results.

1. After I compared the stress which mastectomy have and breast conserving have I found that both patients experienced “The difficulty or anxiety getting out of the confusion” after they were informed. Most of the patients who had mastectomy went through “anxiety how do relatives and neighbors think about it” and “grief or anxiety about the loss of the breast.” Most of the patients who had breast conserving went through the anxiety for the treatment like X-ray, “anxiety about the treatment after they left hospital” and “discontent with doctors and nurses.” This means they couldn't consult doctors or nurses on the operation.

2. After I compared the coping which mastectomy have and breast conserving have I found that most of the patients who had mastectomy experienced coping-method about lossing their breast like “rethinking from a different point of view”, “abandoning” and “escaping from reality.” And most of the patients who had breast conserving experienced coping-method like “looking for information”, “thinking of solution concretely” and “bracing themselves.”