Redesigning the Life of a Patient with Neuropsychological Disorder after Glioma Surgery

Abstract

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the structure of the life redesigning experience of patients with neuropsychological disorder after glioma surgery. We conducted individual interviews with ten outpatients whose progress we were observing after surgery of the first glioma. We used A. Giorgi’s descriptive phenomenological method to structurally analyze their life redesigning experiences. Analysis revealed 16 components of life redesigning.

From the analysis four themes emerged from the viewpoint of “accepting and coping with the disability.” The overall structure of life redesigning was as follows. Patients first became conscious of “a sense of incongruity in their daily life due to their neuropsychological disorder.” They then “became aware of their disorder, felt bewildered, and were shaken with emotion.” They “searched for a way to live with the disorder” and found a new way of life. They finally “became able to think of the future realistically.”

Patients with glioma characteristically feel a sense of incongruity, when interacting with others in their community, after discharge. This neuropsychological disorder makes it difficult to correctly analyze their sense of incongruity. Thus, redesigning their life, within the context of their condition, after discharge is difficult.

Thus it becomes necessary for nurses to seek support and understanding about this neuropsychological disorder directly from family members and others in society key to the patient, so they can facilitate patients’ living within their communities.