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- Title
Disappearing Floors and Second Chances: Men's Journeys of Prostate Cancer.
- Authors
Hagen, Brad; Grant-kalischuk, Ruth; Sanders, James
- Abstract
The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to explore the lived experience of men with prostate cancer. Fifteen men in Western Canada who had received treatment for prostate cancer were interviewed and encouraged to provide their stories about experiencing prostate cancer from the initial diagnosis on. Men narrated the experience of prostate cancer as a journey, starting with the shock and soul-searching of initial diagnosis, continuing on as they "fumbled in the dark" for information and coped with the various threats to their masculinity, and concluding with lessons they had learned along the way. Although some men minimized the experience of prostate cancer as merely something to be "fixed," other men saw the illness as a potentially transformative experience. For them, prostate cancer gave them a "second chance" to re-evaluate their priorities in life, and to experience their lives as men in a changed and transformed manner. This paper adds to the existing literature by not only offering a mapping out the "patient careers" of men with prostate cancer, but also by re-focusing men's experiences of prostate cancer as a means by which to grow as persons and men.
- Subjects
PROSTATE cancer; CANCER in men; DISEASES in men; CANCER; QUALITATIVE research
- Publication
International Journal of Men's Health, 2007, Vol 6, Issue 3, p201
- ISSN
1532-6306
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.3149/jmh.0603.201