Table 4.

Illustrative Quotes for Codes by Prognosis Level

	Level
	None (n = 10)	Low (n = 14)	High (n = 10)
Time	P: The only thing with the chemo is I remember how nauseated I was. So I'm saying, you know what, I'm taking it one day at a time. (62-year-old male)	P: Frankly my quality of life right now is not good…So it's like uh if I knew that that stopping treatment would give me a better quality of life for a shorter period of time… PCC: Mm hmm. P: …I might opt for that but it's sort of like the better quality of life. Uh it just seems like everything is going wrong. (71-year-old female)	FM1: I don't think anything that we can do would extend her life? PCC: No, no this is, this is her time and this is the disease process. And the point of fact compared to 99% of the people with her disease, she has outlived her prognosis about 10 times. FM2: We're very blessed in the fact the additional time we had, she saw my oldest get getting married. And she saw all of her grandchildren graduate from high school, so I mean, we wouldn't have had those times otherwise. So, you know, so we can't be greedy. I mean, we can, but we shouldn't be. FM1: Very difficult to watch because you'd rather take her place, instead of her suffering there. But um, (clears throat) but it's not to be, and, and so we accept it and, and we try to go on till we see each other again, so. (family members of a 69-year-old female)
Not knowing what to expect	FM: …I kind of get the idea they're not really sure what they're up against. P: Yeah, exactly. FM: Because we haven't really heard from anyone other than echoing the words stage 4 with the metastases through the body and a couple of the big tumors. Aside from that, what is that going to take him through as far as pain, psychological? We have no idea. We're coasting. PCC: Still waiting for responses. FM: We're waiting for that stuff, you know. The odds against fighting it versus not. The odds with chemo and radiation versus not. We have absolutely no idea… (51-year-old male)	P: But again, I knew what was to expect, I was told this, prepare, do what I'm supposed to do. PCC: Yeah. P: You know I had the. PCC: I mean we can manage a lot if we have a sense of what it is and what we need to be. P: Right, that's what I'm saying. PCC: Prepared for. P: And I asked. PCC: And how we organize ourselves. P: Yeah, and I act appropriately. But let's just take. PCC Yeah. P: The blinders off or the facet off—whatever we want to look at it but a glass is—because this is not—we don't know where this is going to end. (57-year-old female)	P: And I think to myself if we let this go and there isn't another surgery and we let it go how long is it going to grow inside me? How long am I going to survive? Where's it going to end? PCC: Right. P: How am I going to die with this? PCC: Those are some uncertainties for sure. P: Yeah, it's frightening. (65-year-old female)
What matters most	PCC: …What I'm getting from reading your chart and seeing you is that pain is the number one important thing right now. Would you agree or disagree? P: Yes, it's hurting. Very much. It's swelling. My neck hurts awful. (62-year-old female)	P: I wanna kinda get out of here so I could straighten out a few things in my life… PCC: Mm hmm. P: …and uh I don't wanna leave a lot of problems for my wife. PCC: Loose ends. P: Loose ends. PCC: So your hope is to get back to both. P: Yup. PCC: That's very important to you. (77-year-old male)	PCC: You know, this is the time for you guys to be together. And to be together and to bring home to her to do what's important to her. FM: I think speaking for her, what she'd like to do is kind of say good-bye to her friends during the time she has left. She can do that in a comfortable setting. (family member of a 56-year-old female)