ABSTRACT

This study was conducted in order to examine the difficulties experienced by the women with breast cancer due to lymphedema and the factors effecting this situation. Sampling of this descriptive research was composed of 100 women who developed lymphedema following the breast cancer therapy. Data were collected through descriptive characteristics and the form designed to determine the difficulties caused by lymphedema. Total score that can be received from the form varies between 0-58. The increase of the score received from the form shows that the difficulty experienced by a patient also increases. Data were collected through the methods of face-to-face interview and telephone talk between 20th September 2009 and 15th January 2010. In the analysis of the data t-test, Man Whitney U test, Anova and Kruskal Wallis were used analysis in the independent groups. The mean difficulty score of women with lymphedema was 31.08±17.67. It was determined that they mostly experienced physical problems such as pain, heaviness and tenderness (20.78±11.56). It was also found that they experienced psychological difficulties such as concern for the future, feeling sad and tense due to lymphedema (6.48±4.86). Women with lymphedema also stated that they experienced social problems such as not looking at the arm with lymphedema in the mirror, changes in working life due to lymphedema (3.82±4.71). It was also determined that, of the women with lymphedema, those who had higher educational status, who worked, who was informed about lymphedema or who had moderate lymphedema achieved lower mean scores of difficulty.