Table 1 Example of codes and sub-codes for methods of coping and long-term survival
Code Sub-code Definition | Example |
|---|---|
Long term survival | |
Medical Of or relating to the practice of medicine, including host characteristics, treatment regimens, and disease characteristics | “The quality of the care I received at [hospital]” “First is, I got my surgery done by a gynecologic oncologist. And second I was optimally debulked. Third is, I have the standard of care for time of taxol and carboplatin. And all of my chemo treatments were on schedule. None were delayed” |
Lifestyle choices and personal characteristics Activities and/or characteristics such as exercise and diet choices to choices about personality and attitude | “I keep my body in good shape, so I work out and watch my diet. I eat organic” “I’ve always had a very positive attitude. I never really felt that anything could happen to me” |
Social Friendly companionship, connections, or relations | “Support of my friends and family and members of my support group.” “Helping other people has helped me, make me feel like I can contribute and it’s been worthwhile |
Religious/Spiritual A focus on religious organization, ‘higher power’, or interior life of a person | “God isn’t ready for me yet so he has let me live this long, I guess.” “Spirituality, you know…knowing that there’s someone greater than us” |
Struggling/searching for answers/meaning Attempting to understand one’s life and experiences | “I wish I knew that answer” “I’ve kind of come to the conclusion that it’s rather random” “I believe that part of being a long-term survivor is luck” “When I got cancer I never asked why I got it, but I do ask why me? You know, why am I surviving 11 years?” |
Coping Conserving emotional energy A choice to disengage from stressful situations or people | “I’m not willing to put up with toxic people or BS” “I’m real quick to remove people from my life who are not supportive” “When I got the diagnosis I said, I can only take so much information at a time and I’ll tell you when I’m ready to hear the stage, and I knew it was probably stage three or four but I didn’t think I could hear four, and so I said, ‘I’ll let you know when I’m ready’” |
Value-based activity Any activity which brings joy, reduces stress, or has some other positive impact on the individual | “I started doing volunteer work at a nonprofit and then it became a job for me. Love it to pieces” “We have a sailboat…we spent each spring into June, we spent time in the Bahamas on our sailboat, living on it. If things just get a little too crazy, we are on a bay and we can take our sailboat out and it’s kind of like going to the psychiatrist…that relieves our stress” |
Self-care Any activity deliberately done to address mental, emotional, and physical health | “I decided today that I needed to rest, let my body kind of rest, so I got up this morning and I showered and I got right back into bed” |
Planning* Involves creating strategies and steps in order to handle the stressor or problem | “It’s just one day at a time. Today we go to this doctor, tomorrow I need to get groceries and make sure we have the health things on hand for him [husband]” |
Active coping* Involves taking steps to remove, bypass, or improve a stressor | “I didn’t want to sit around and be a victim, boohoo me, so instead I decided to learn all I could about this disease” |
Positive reinterpretation and growth* This method of coping aims to approach the stress by interpreting a stressful situation in a more positive way | “That’s been a key factor for me and an ability to give back and feel, perhaps, less guilty about surviving when others did not” |
Use of instrumental social support* Seeking advice, assistance, or information | “Right after I finished the six rounds of Taxol and cisplatin, I went to see an art therapist…I was really able to deal with my fear of recurrence most effectively with that” |
Use of emotional social support* Receiving moral support, sympathy, or understanding | “As soon as I was able to, I began going to this twice a month support group…I see them as my pack” |
Religious coping* Religion may function in different ways to enhance coping under stress by providing emotional support, positive reinterpretation and growth, or active coping | “I think you relax a little bit and you, um, I don’t know, there are certain things you resign yourself to and I was getting better at giving things to God rather than fighting” |
Acceptance* An important method of coping in situations where the stressful event must be accommodated rather than easily changed | “We’re all gonna die so let’s put that in perspective” “Worrying is not going to change it so, I’m not going to worry about it” |