FAMILY EXPERIENCE FACING ILLNESS AND TREATMENT OF CHILDREN ANDADOLESCENTS WITH ACUTE LYMPHOBLASTIC LEUKEMIA

Abstract

This study approaches family members’ experience of children/adolescents in the presence of illness andtreatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia in the light of Heidegger’s phenomenological analysis. Data were collected bymeans of an interview with 11 families in Terezina, Piauí/Brazil, from March to April of 2007. The results were organized intounits of meaning which point out the family being-of-child-with-cancer, being-with-child-with-cancer and family being-with-future outlook. It is possible to conclude that in the presence of illness and treatment of child/adolescent with acutelymphoblastic leukemia, the family goes into the child/adolescent’s world and makes it their own world, incorporating theirchildren’s suffering and struggles and, at times, setting aside their own being. However, it is in the same situation thatfamilies, being-with the children and the others that surround them, develop possibilities of being and living, so as to findthe wholeness of their being-there.

Keywords

• Family
• Nursing
• Leukemia lymphoid