Daily experiences of cancer-colostomized people: an existential approach

Abstract

The acquaintance with stoma demand of colostomy person the adoption of countless mensure of adaptation and readjustment of daily activity. This way, the experiences of colostomized people due to cancer are reported and analyzed. Their living-in-the-world with stoma and their use of excrement bag are investigated. Martin Heidegger's existential phenomenology has been employed to understand these people's experience. Two persons, male and female, living in the northern region of the state of Paraná, Brazil, were interviewed in their homes between January and April 2008. Research has been approved by the Permanent Ethics Committee in Research with People of the State University of Maringá. The issue involved in current research was: What has changed in your life after stoma surgery? Discourse interpretation revealed convergent feelings which produced the existential theme: the temporality of colostomized person's living-in-the-world. Analysis showed that cancer-caused colostomized persons are affected by their living-in-the world affected by physical, emotional and social changes. They should transcend disease-imposed restrictions so that they may visualize other possibilities to continue living in the world.