How do one's beliefs influence their explanatory models and health-seeking behaviors?
CARLAIt runs in my family. Carla attributed the cancer to her own genetics, having both a sister and an aunt who had struggled with the disease.
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MEGANEverything. Megan believes everything is causing cancer: from the processed foods we eat, to the lifestyle we live, to constantly being surrounded by electronics. These all contribute to a rise in cancer diagnoses.
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It was my fault...I missed my [mammogram] appointment and...and that's what happened. Carla felt personally responsible for her cancer, having missed a routine scan and never rescheduling. Here, we see guilt for not adhering to the biomedical embrace.
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Lie if you have to but get more than a mammogram Megan had a clean mammogram, it was her ultrasound that revealed she had cancer. She believed without an ultrasound she would have found out about her diagnosis too late. She believes everyone needs an ultrasound and a mammogram when scanning for breast cancer.
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HalinaStress and sweets. That is what did it. Two years before her diagnosis, Halina began her job as a phlebotomist. She recalls those two years as being the most stressful time of her life. Halina remembers constantly being anxious and overindulging in sweets. According to Halina, they were her breast cancer causing agents.
Chemo will kill me faster than cancer. Halina recalls listening to the long list of chemotherapeutic agents that would be incorporated into her chemotherapy cocktail. After introducing each agent, her oncologist would add that the side effects include the potential development of a new cancer. She came to realize that the chemotherapy would kill her faster than the breast cancer.
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ChristineI was meant to get a new outlook on life. When asked "why do you think this happened to you?" Christine thinks that maybe it was meant to be because now her life is changed and she has a stronger, more positive outlook.
It made me stronger Christine thinks her experience with chemo made her grow stronger she said "it was fine" when asked about her illness experience with cancer.
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