Friday 5 October 2007

Psychosocial Issues

Psychosocial Issues

- financial: expensive to undergo surgeries; colostomy bags can be expensive; also to go for check ups (rectal examination, colonscopy, barium); genetic screening (?)

- emotional: have faced it before; saw how it affected his father; could cause him to not have faith in the modern interventions; either scares him to taking the treatments earlier or go for some other forms of treatments (CAM); could affect his children seeing their father, uncle and grandfather getting the disease; worried that they might get the disease as well; the need to go for check-ups can be traumatising; can affect his wife, not sure if her husband might be affected severely; how would she support the children

- socialising: if need to use colostomy bag, might not feel comfortable when being out with friends; feel inferior; passing gas and possibility of a bag blowout; could offend others if do not know how to handle the situation

- exercise/work: might feel reluctant to exercise if need to use the colostomy bag because it is inconvenient; could be jeered at by his students

- adapting to life: difficulty swimming and showering; may need to adjust his diet if using the colostomy bag; learning to deal with the smell from the stool

- social support: could join cancer patient support groups; colon cancer support groups (eg. colostomy association in UK)

(Posted by: Vivian)

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