Illness Experiences in Patient With First Incidence of Acute Myocardial Infarction

This study aims to understand the experiences and feelings of first Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) patients. Research subjects are 10 AMI patients in cardiology wards of a Southern Taiwan hospital, of whom there were seven males and three females, with an average age of 45.3SD 7.42. The research utilized the Phenomenological study which included in-depth interviews for data collection to complete accounts of the patients’ post-treatment experiences based on the interviews recorded onto audio files and the detailed notes taken by the interviewer in the process. The qualitative analysis method was then employed to analyze the data elicited from the interviews, yielding three themes concerning the experiences and feeling of the patients: " The start of disease ", "The process of disease transformation," and "The change of perception: Life and the engine of love." Seven sub-themes were found after the analysis: 1. Experiencing unusual feelings, 2. Losing the control of body 3. Traveling through between life and death, 4. Creating a new order for one’s body, 5. Cherishing family relationships, 6. Seizing the moment one has, and 7. Reversing the future.

When I find myself suffering and suffering, I deeply feel that the health of the body is so important to them. I feel the end of life from the experience of illness. I feel fragile and cherish the life that can be continued, Thinking, rethinking their own future, regaining themselves, thinking about the future is to play to their physical instincts to adapt to their own health, disease do not relapse, but also to take the time to complete the responsibility of their own continuation Let yourself be changed, in the face of a new life.

The results of this study show that the suffering illness experiences including the impact and anxiety caused by the disease, the fear of death, and the uncertainty of facing physical changes. Through the experience of the disease, they re-self-adjustment their lives, re-new the relationships toward themselves and their families. More, they also adjust the expectations of future life. All those subjective illness suffering experiences of AMI patients shed the light of medical as well as nursing care, that physical care only part of their disease encounter. For a holistic care, the total facets of disease, especially subjective illness experience of suffering need to be awared.