The Experiential Approach
WHAT IS THE EXPERIENTIAL APPROACH TO MEDICAL ANTHROPOLOGY?
The experiential approach to medical anthropology is investigating how someone experiences an illness or disease, as well as, how culture shapes these experiences and gives meaning to the person's life. An experience is how people perceive or live with the illness or disease at hand. Meaning is defined as ways that people make sense of their illness or disease. These experiences can then be explained in narrative stories used to help the person suffering from the disease or illness cope, make sense of, and understand their disease or illness, as well as, develop a sense of suffering, adjust to the new disability, and feel empowered over said disability. The listener hearing the illness narrative can also benefit from the encounter. The listener of the narrative story can feel less isolated if they have the disease or are also suffering from something else, can be encouraged to share their own stories of suffering, as well as, can develop a model of how to live a life with an illness or disease. An important thing to note is that the experiential approach can include subjective experiences, such as mental illness, pain, and chronic conditions, as it is an account of a disease or illness from the sufferer's point of view. Without the experiential approach to medical anthropology, people suffering from lung cancer would not have a way to express the doubt, hurtfulness, pain, as well as, joy, empowerment, and happiness the disease may have caused them. Also, by writing about their paths taken with lung cancer, people can connect and support each other, as well as, compare paths and develop a path right for them.
WHAT IS AN EXAMPLE OF A REAL ILLNESS NARRATIVE?
The following illness narrative about lung cancer is from the blog, "life and breath: outliving lung cancer for the terminally optimistic", developed by Sadie Dayton and written by guest blogger Nancy. This is Nancy's quest narrative: the story of how she found the strength to take control of her own health. A picture of Nancy before lung cancer is on the left of this paragraph. The story starts six years ago in a small emergency room. Nancy had been coughing up sputum and running high fevers for the past few days, but today her symptoms were much worse. A chest XRAY and multiple labs test were ran on Nancy. The chest XRAY showed pneumonia, as well as, a small density in her right middle lobe of her right lung. Nancy received the XRAY results and was admitted to the hospital for one day for the pneumonia diagnosis, as Nancy was told the mass seen in her right lung was something to follow up with her primary care doctor about. Nancy stated that she was a follower when it came to her health; she respected and trusted every doctor's thoughts and did everything they said to do. So after she was released from the hospital, Nancy went to her primary care doctor to have the XRAY's examined. Her primary care doctor told her that "it seemed like the mass was a pus pocket from the infection" (Life and Breath) Nancy asked if she should have a lung biopsy just to be safe and the doctor replied "no, you never smoked you will never get lung cancer you will be fine" (Life and Breath). So Nancy trotted off into the sunset for the next six years. Culturally, Nancy knew not to question the knowledgeable doctor who went to school many more years that she did, no matter what she felt inside.
Six years from the pneumonia incident, Nancy was living a normal, healthy life. She was following her dream of owning a bowling alley and raising two children. Suddenly, Nancy became sick again, but this time with less as infectious bronchitis. A repeat XRAY was taken to ensure the bronchitis did not develop into pneumonia. While reviewing her XRAY's, Nancy noticed something she had forgotten about almost six years ago: the mass in her right lobe of her right lung was still there and had grown! Again she crawled back into her primary care doctor's office. He had the same response. The doctor said that Nancy was not a smoker so she would not get lung cancer and that the mass was just from the infection again and she had nothing to worry about. But Nancy was worried, so she went behind her doctor's back and requested a lung biopsy. The results showed lung cancer! She was diagnosed with NSCLC adenocarcinoma on September 27, 2011. The same day she received her results she went back to her primary care doctor and stated that she had gotten a lung biopsy, against his will, and that is showed her worst fear, a fear the doctor did not even think was possible. Needless to say, he was not her doctor anymore.
After further evaluation of the cancer detected in Nancy's lungs, it was determined that the cancer was possibly caused by the second hand smoke Nancy was receiving at her dream job of owning a bowling center. Nancy felt as if she was the problem with the world. She felt very depressed and struggled with the diagnosis, as many cancer patients do. Until one day, while working in her bowling center, she decided to be more than just a lung cancer patient; She decided to improve her life and the life of others by making her bowling center smoke free. By helping others not develop the cancer that took her breath away, she felt like she had a reason to life and, in that effort, greatly improved her emotional well being with who she was as a person struggling with lung cancer. Nancy also created blog posts all over the lung cancer community urging sufferer's to get second opinions and to follow their hearts when it came to their health. Nancy learned that nobody is perfect and that everything said to you, even medical diagnosis, should be taken with a grain of salt; "the world is made to be questioned," she said (Life and Breath). Nancy was no longer the woman who followed every command; she learned to take control of her own health and direct her life the way it should be! After multiple surgeries, chemo, and radiation, Nancy's last CT scan showed that she was free of cancer! Today, she shares her disease journey as a way to educate patients about how to obtain different options for their health concerns, as well as, finding the strength to go against higher powers, such as her primary care doctor, when it comes to their health! She has found a meaning in her cancer diagnosis and has been able to help many hundreds of other lung cancer sufferers through the tough process of cancer healing.
The following illness narrative about lung cancer is from the blog, "life and breath: outliving lung cancer for the terminally optimistic", developed by Sadie Dayton and written by guest blogger Nancy. This is Nancy's quest narrative: the story of how she found the strength to take control of her own health. A picture of Nancy before lung cancer is on the left of this paragraph. The story starts six years ago in a small emergency room. Nancy had been coughing up sputum and running high fevers for the past few days, but today her symptoms were much worse. A chest XRAY and multiple labs test were ran on Nancy. The chest XRAY showed pneumonia, as well as, a small density in her right middle lobe of her right lung. Nancy received the XRAY results and was admitted to the hospital for one day for the pneumonia diagnosis, as Nancy was told the mass seen in her right lung was something to follow up with her primary care doctor about. Nancy stated that she was a follower when it came to her health; she respected and trusted every doctor's thoughts and did everything they said to do. So after she was released from the hospital, Nancy went to her primary care doctor to have the XRAY's examined. Her primary care doctor told her that "it seemed like the mass was a pus pocket from the infection" (Life and Breath) Nancy asked if she should have a lung biopsy just to be safe and the doctor replied "no, you never smoked you will never get lung cancer you will be fine" (Life and Breath). So Nancy trotted off into the sunset for the next six years. Culturally, Nancy knew not to question the knowledgeable doctor who went to school many more years that she did, no matter what she felt inside.
Six years from the pneumonia incident, Nancy was living a normal, healthy life. She was following her dream of owning a bowling alley and raising two children. Suddenly, Nancy became sick again, but this time with less as infectious bronchitis. A repeat XRAY was taken to ensure the bronchitis did not develop into pneumonia. While reviewing her XRAY's, Nancy noticed something she had forgotten about almost six years ago: the mass in her right lobe of her right lung was still there and had grown! Again she crawled back into her primary care doctor's office. He had the same response. The doctor said that Nancy was not a smoker so she would not get lung cancer and that the mass was just from the infection again and she had nothing to worry about. But Nancy was worried, so she went behind her doctor's back and requested a lung biopsy. The results showed lung cancer! She was diagnosed with NSCLC adenocarcinoma on September 27, 2011. The same day she received her results she went back to her primary care doctor and stated that she had gotten a lung biopsy, against his will, and that is showed her worst fear, a fear the doctor did not even think was possible. Needless to say, he was not her doctor anymore.
After further evaluation of the cancer detected in Nancy's lungs, it was determined that the cancer was possibly caused by the second hand smoke Nancy was receiving at her dream job of owning a bowling center. Nancy felt as if she was the problem with the world. She felt very depressed and struggled with the diagnosis, as many cancer patients do. Until one day, while working in her bowling center, she decided to be more than just a lung cancer patient; She decided to improve her life and the life of others by making her bowling center smoke free. By helping others not develop the cancer that took her breath away, she felt like she had a reason to life and, in that effort, greatly improved her emotional well being with who she was as a person struggling with lung cancer. Nancy also created blog posts all over the lung cancer community urging sufferer's to get second opinions and to follow their hearts when it came to their health. Nancy learned that nobody is perfect and that everything said to you, even medical diagnosis, should be taken with a grain of salt; "the world is made to be questioned," she said (Life and Breath). Nancy was no longer the woman who followed every command; she learned to take control of her own health and direct her life the way it should be! After multiple surgeries, chemo, and radiation, Nancy's last CT scan showed that she was free of cancer! Today, she shares her disease journey as a way to educate patients about how to obtain different options for their health concerns, as well as, finding the strength to go against higher powers, such as her primary care doctor, when it comes to their health! She has found a meaning in her cancer diagnosis and has been able to help many hundreds of other lung cancer sufferers through the tough process of cancer healing.
Bibliography:
Life and Breath: outliving lung cancer for the terminally optimistic . "Nancy: Second Hand Smoke and Lung Cancer." Accessed July 31, 2014. http://outlivinglungcancer.com/tag/second-hand-smoke-and-lung-cancer/.