Klaske van Sluis

136 8.4. Results Figure 8.1: Three main themes and sub-themes that resulted from the analysis of the interviews. I used to say: ‘I’ll have everything [medically necessary] done but not that.’ Because I had seen people [with total laryngectomy] walk around in the hospital, and then I said: ‘That’s not for me.’ I’m not going to walk around with a hole in my throat. (Participant 5) Some needed to go into surgery quickly, which was distressing and required last-minute practical arrangements. One participant spoke about the impact the procedure had on her family life; her adolescent children and partner had to make a lot of effort to combine normal family life, school, and work with visiting the hospital and caring for their mother/wife. Participants’ expectations regarding the surgery and its outcome were shaped by the preoperative counselling they received in the hospital, information pro- vided by patient visitors (a laryngectomized individual), and information they had sought themselves. Two respondents said the counselling they received from the hospital was too technical; they missed receiving information about the daily implications of having total laryngectomy. All participants remembered their pre-operative meeting with the laryngectomized patient visitor vividly.