In the literature the idea of coping and
adaptation as a transitional process is
common. Auer, for example, suggests that
when patients are diagnosed with renal
failure, they go through a process similar to
that of bereavement.12 This involves the
experience of shock and numbness, denial,
grief, and anger before finally reaching
some degree of acceptance. Hooper and
Cohen describe a similar adjustment
process, suggesting patients experience
shock, something termed “encounter reaction,”
which is characterized by disorganized
thinking and a range of feelings
including loss, grief, despair, hopelessness,
and sometimes denial, then last achieving
an uneasy acceptance.