Table 2.

Experience with cancer

Barriers to seeking cancer diagnosis or treatment
Norms against touching oneself	Even though they recommend when you go to your annual check up to get checked, she didn’t. There are people …with other mindsets, that believe that it is not good, or I don’t know, their minds are still very…that’s their custom…not to touch themselves …
Inaccurate risk perception	She thought that since she never had a husband she would not get cancer…and when they went it was too late … it started in the uterus and spread to all the internal organs. I think that she didn’t even last four months after that.
Embarrassment	Because of embarrassment …they don’t go
Fear	Many people don’t go to the doctor as well because they think that if they go, they will find… they’ll take out even what’s not there
Denial	they think that they do have [cancer] but they don’t want to know
Reaction to diagnosis (of self or family member)
Disbelief	…when they told me, the first thing that came to my mind was, why me? Because I was diagnosed with lung cancer, but I don’t smoke… That is why the first thing that came to me was that, why me?
Fear	Well, death. That you are going to die or the person that has cancer is going to die.
Sadness	…it is a feeling of sadness; overall, you never know who will be diagnosed with cancer, that is the first thing. After they diagnose someone, well either way, the feeling is bad because very few survive. The only chance is if they detect it in time.
Strength	What do you get out of screaming, running … If you have it, oh well…you have to be strong.
Courage	I just saw my son, and I gave myself courage, and he gave me courage, and I said, I have to go on for him, for myself, and I will do it.
Faith	…I’m very scared, very scared, but at the same time I have a lot of faith in God. I will move forward…I think that you have to be brave…
Hope	First, you don’t believe, you think that it is not true, the things that they are telling you… that the doctors failed… Those are things that come to mind. And second is that hopefully there is a cure and that … it’s not so bad and that you will be cured.
Challenges faced after diagnosis
Family concerns	But [my son], I know, I don’t think he or my other girl took it well. They just heard that I had cancer, and because of my mom, because of what she went through, they thought “My mom is going to die.” I said, “No, don’t say that.” But it had a bad impact on them. Of course they [the kids] have to be impacted. The mother is the most loved…what brought one to this world. How are they not going to? … they have to worry, partly because it’s a part of their body that is parting. Because you know that one is a piece of flesh of the mother or the father, right? So when the mother parts it would be like if they are losing an arm. … my son was only six years of age and I thought, since he was so small… that there is going to be no future for him.
Financial concerns	We didn’t have money, we didn’t have work here, and my mom … they didn’t tend to her because we owed the hospital… Like… right now she is still in treatment, the injections are very expensive and there isn’t any help for her injections. It’s a lot of money and they’ve already insisted that they give her [the treatment] … about three months ago she told us that she was going to leave us because it was, well, it was too much money and her husband did not make much… It’s too expensive. … both of [my friends] are farm workers. What resources are available for them? I know that one of them already told me that it’s hard for them to find help because the medical coupon will not cover certain things. What are they going to do later on? Both of them do not have documents.
Fear of losing medical coupons	She says… “OK, right now they give me the medical coupon, but the way the immigration laws are right now, there are no reforms, there is nothing.” That’s what she is worried about… “Up to now it’s good.” She says, “But what is going to happen in the future?”
Lack of support from spouse	… on many occasions the husbands don’t support the wives well. Sometimes the machismo doesn’t allow them to, doesn’t let them support them… There was a lady in physical treatment with me, and they took out one of her breasts, and… she was young, she was my age. We were around the same age in years, and they took out her breast and she had no support from her husband and the lady let herself die, because her husband instead of supporting her or helping her out in the house, that man would tell her that she was no longer good because she wasn’t a complete woman because they had removed her breasts. And she would go to chemo and she began to withdraw from the treatment… and the woman died very young, leaving a child… [She] didn’t get operated for cervical cancer; supposedly because the husband told her that he wasn’t going to be an idiot anymore. “If you’re going to get your uterus taken out, you’re no good to me anymore.” And they’d rather let themselves die.
Depression	Well I felt bad. I felt like…well that all doors closed for me. I felt like in a cell I wanted to get out through a door, but they all closed on me, and well, I felt very sad and depressed. Since I am alone here and do not have family, I would get more depressed. And well, I also got… depression…And like right now, I am still taking medication for depression.
Isolation	… that is why one gets depressed more, because …. you don’t get to talk to other cancer survivors in order to get advice… And… when you go through chemotherapy, you feel really bad ….
Separation from family	When, the case of which I’m referring to is with one of my husband’s sister and she was in Mexico and my husband is here…His challenge was that he could not see her. She was the older sister and she was very attached to him and him to her. It was, I felt my husband’s pain…and handling the situation of talking on the phone with each other and for her to say that she was fine, she felt fine, but, but not my husband, he couldn’t handle the situation.
Beliefs about causes of cancer
Genetics	I also believe that it’s…part genetic, right? If my mom…that’s why I want to learn. I am telling you that my older sister was diagnosed.
Environmental exposures	… I also believe that the environment has a lot to do with it. Nowadays there are a lot of chemicals. Some are registered. There are others that they throw away without thinking about it… I say that it depends on this part of here of Hanford [nuclear plant], all this. The water is contaminated, the rivers are contaminated. They can’t…they say on television, on the radio that you can’t…eat fish from the Yakima River. Sunnyside and everything is contaminated… All of that is part of the radiation that Hanford has here. Would it be because of all the pesticides that are being used right now? All the food is exposed, they are not natural, the tree does not grow fruit, but they use fertilizers, chemicals and other things.
Sun	Because of the sun, because one is always working in the rays of the sun.
Physical trauma	… if one hits himself and a bruise forms and the blood remains, the cells are dead. That little blow on that area does not vanish because the bruise is going away. Something stays inside … it continues to grow, feeding off of the same thing, like if the dead cells pass once again in our organism, I think that they feed themselves there with …
Riding horses	… two uncles of mine passed away from prostate cancer, and in Mexico, … since they were very young …well they transported the horse dressings. And well, they say, but I don’t know, that that is what affected them. And that is why… they got [prostate] cancer…they were always on horses.
Spray of dust from car engines	I was a mechanic all of my life…and the dust from the brakes…that is very bad for cancer, that’s why you never wash them, let’s say, you never blow air on them … And if you are not careful then the air takes it, and the air takes it and spreads it somewhere else, but that gives cancer, I don’t know what kind of cancer, but cancer comes from there, from that material.
Proximity to farm animals	… And they were saying that a lot of women had cancer… a lot of them from being so close to the feed they were giving the animals… in that town, where they had the chicken farms there were already like ten or something like that [had cancer]…. …In that town, a large number of people died of cancer. It is called el Palo Verde in Jalisco…they fought so they could remove the chicken farms out of that town.
Operations on cancerous tumors	There is cancer…and if they operate you they don’t stop it, it scatters. But its like she said, the cancer, you need to know where the cancer is. If they operate and they don’t know where it is at, like in my sister’s case, they operated her and it scattered…
Infections	Cancer is like infections, right? …I think that they are infections…
Beliefs about cures for cancer
Natural remedies or herbs	I know of a man that took a medicine from Mexico. Well this has been years that he took it, and it cured his cancer. The uña de gato… And he knew about a lot of remedies, that I remember. He did get better for a long time. The peelings from a tree named, Campanillo…Cook and drink them. And …. others from one called, Vanillo…I don’t remember any others. They say the Cancerina…But it has not been proven to have helped anybody. And I don’t know if … leaves of cancerina….It is an herb…Cooked like in a tea. They told me that dialvaca tea is good… Daily, daily, drink all you can… I am taking a remedy with aloe, honey, and salda wine. I remember, they gave my grandmother snake…Because is was like fresh meat …..right now I have heard that they process it, dry it, and sell it as capsules. In addition, they would even give my grandmother crab. Like I tell you, at that time you would not hear much about chemotherapy and radiology. They would mash [the crabs]. With like rice and serve it like a beverage. I’ve heard that this homeopathic medicine or acupuncture could possibly, I don’t know.
Smoking cessation	Stop smoking
Faith	Faith…in God
Eating healthy	I tried to… to eat healthier. I don’t eat any fats, I hardly eat any pork or cattle meats. Very little beef, pork I never eat. And try to eat more fruit, more vegetables more…healthier.