Table 3.
Veterans’ emotional reactions to pulmonary nodule diagnosis
| No Distress |
| “Curious. I mean, what is it? I was just curious to find out what it is. I mean, nothing scary. I’m not worried about it. No, I don’t worry about it. When it’s time to go, it’s time to go. I’m not worried about it.” (Veteran K) |
| “So until it starts [to cause symptoms], I’m not going to worry about it.” (Veteran D) |
| “No, I wasn’t worried about it. All I know is that if there’s anything to do to help it, I’m interesting in doing it.” (Veteran S) |
| Mild Distress |
| “Na, I don’t think about it every day, just every once in a while, or maybe when I go to bed at night or something I’ll start thinking about it or something or….It’s not a thing that it eats at me constantly. It’s just once in awhile pops into my mind.” (Veteran C) |
| “I am not consumed by it or plagued by it, it doesn’t slow me down. It’s just one of those things. If I do think of it I say, ‘Well, I wish that wasn’t there. Hope there’s nothing there next time I come in.’ And I continue on.” (Veteran O) |
| “I don’t think ’worried’ is the right word. You know, I’ve got maladies all over. I mean, you can’t worry about stuff [patient emphasis]. I just want more information now.” (Veteran F) |
| Moderate/Severe Distress |
| “Well, like I said, there’s family history in there, so pretty worried. I don’t know what it turns into later or what it is and they didn’t show me the picture. Just so, every once and a while I’ll lay awake at night and stare up at the ceiling.” (Veteran B) |
| “Basically I was devastated. I thought I had cancer. I called my son and my daughter-in-law and told them I needed to talk to them. You know, in Oregon they got assisted suicide, and there is no way am I gonna be like my mother. I do not want to get to that point.…But I would go the route of assisted suicide.“ (Veteran P) |
| “In the week since I found it? It has definitely made me evaluate things. Other than adding a humongous level of stress, it’s put a lot of things on hold, major plans, just because I don’t want to plan something and find out, ‘Oh, gosh, guess what. It’s what you think it is.’ I’d say it has affected the quality (of life) I guess.…Probably went out and got plastered because I figure if I just make myself drunk enough I won’t have to deal with it.” (Veteran H) |
| “I didn’t know what I was reading and so I didn’t really have any information. But, generally speaking, I tend to think in dramatic terms so I thought, ‘This is a death sentence.’ Pretty much. Someone’s telling me I’m going to die of lung cancer but no one’s telling me, ‘Oh it’s going to kill you in 3 months’ or ‘You have 12 years to live’ or anything like that. No information at all.” (Veteran A) |