Table 3 Overview of signs and symptoms experienced by patients prior to treatment
Symptom | Reported | Example quote | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
S | P | Total | ||
Lumps; head/neck | 6 | 6 | • “Basically when I was first diagnosed I had a lump on my neck, on my right hand side of my neck. I noticed it for maybe two months, it did not bother me, did not hurt.” (01–06-M-57) | |
Difficulty/difference in swallowing | 3 | 3 | • “I first had a… noticed a difference in my swallow... it was something that was different.” (01–04-M-59) | |
Pain | 1 | 1 | 2 | • ”.. my mouth it would hurt and I knew there was something wrong.” (01–07-F-66) |
Swollen lymph nodes (neck) | 2 | 2 | • “…nothing else other than the visible swelling of the lymph nodes and no pain, nothing else.” (01–03-M-55) | |
Tongue ulcer | 1 | 1 | • “Initially I had a sore on my tongue that didn’t heal so I was sent to an oral surgeon and then an ear, nose and throat doctor.” (01–14-F-61) | |
Weight loss | 2 | 2 | • “I started losing weight but not a lot at that time... I’m watching my weight go down and going okay but it wasn’t going down that much.” (01–07-F-66) | |
Change in voice | 1 | 1 | • “That would be going back to like a raspy throat like what I had prior to being diagnosed, I had this… It would seem like my mouth was raspy and noticeably kind of different pitched.” (01–09-M-66) | |
Cough | 1 | 1 | • “I started to get a little more noticeable that I kept clearing my throat and coughing a little bit and so I decided to go to the doctor’s thinking maybe there was an infection or something of that nature.” (01–09-M-66) | |
Dry/peeling skin on the neck | 1 | 1 | • “It felt like when you go swimming and your skin dries out, that’s how my neck was feeling, every two or three days or something like that.” (01–10-M-35) | |
Eating less | 1 | 1 | • “I told him I used to be somewhat hungry all three times of the day, but it’s shifted now to only two times of the day.” (01–10-M-35) | |
Hearing problems | 1 | 1 | • “I was having hearing problems…so I went to an ENT. He ran some tests on me and then he said we have a problem, we’re going to drill up and do a biopsy, and that’s when they found I have a nasopharynx tumour.” (01–13-F-62) | |
Impact on range of movement | 1 | 1 | • “So my hands were throwing to a certain direction, but my eyes or my face wouldn’t turn in that direction, just because of the neck drying out, slowing up, stiffen up.” (01–10-M-35) | |
Tiredness | 1 | 1 | • “I said I felt like I was getting enough sleep, but I still feel a little tired.” (01–10-M-35) | |