“Everything happened so quickly” Living through events immediately before and after initial breast cancer diagnosis: an exploratory study of the experiences of a group of women in Cape Town, South Africa

摘要

This article provides information on an aspect of the author’s research on colored women’s experiences of breastcancer and deals specifically with events immediately before and after the initial diagnosis. The experiences of thisgroup of South African women have remained largely undocumented. Individual in-depth interviews were conductedwith 30 colored women. Qualitative data were collected and analyzed using thematic content analysis. The mainthemes that emerged relate to the discovery of the lump, reaction time, response to diagnosis, the question ofwhether a lumpectomy or a mastectomy should be conducted, counseling and family reactions. The findings show,inter alia, that these women are not accorded sufficient time to deal with the magnitude of the diagnosis and thataccess to appropriate counseling is insufficient. This study has implications for health professionals and for womenin general and suggests further areas of investigation within the field of breast cancer research.