Experiência de mulher jovem e sua família no adoecimento e morte por câncer de mama

Abstract

Cancer is still a disease full of stigma and associated to the prognosis of death, so that it is necessary to understand how people experience becoming ill to take care of them. We aim to understand the experience of a young woman and her family in the process of getting ill and dying due to breast cancer. It is a comprehensive qualitative approach study that used the methodology of the situational study through Life History operated by the in-depth Interview with the sick person who died during the field work, as well as the members of her family. From the corpus of analysis we emphasized the units of meaning which permeated the different accounts, being grouped into categories that were the basis for the axes of analyses: a) Beth’s experience in the process of getting ill, dying and death; b) How the experience of getting ill and dying of cancer affects people; c) The family experiencing the dying process. Theses axes were described and analyzed after which two papers were written as a result of the study. The manuscript I - “Experience of getting ill and finitude of the young woman with breast cancer”, made the elaboration of the design that sought to summarize, in a sensitive way, Beth’s life history, a young woman, sick with breast cancer and experiencing her dying process possible. Her accounts and the organization in a given logic in the design contributed for the understanding that life and the situations experienced are (re)signified in face of the disease and the proximity of death. For Beth many of these situations were considered as “little deaths”, because they were permeated with suffering and pain. With manuscript II, entitled “Problems caused by getting ill and dying due to breast cancer: a living perspective”, we learn that getting ill appears suddenly in the life of the person and her family affecting them in an intense and particular way, and that, over time, rearrangements are produced in the way of living so that the care is maintained. It also showed that the family cares for life, even when the end is irreversible, with the potentialities that it has. After the sick person’s death, the family attempts to reorganize itself day by day, changing and being changed in its composition, dynamics and its way of being a family. Finally, we consider that the study allowed us to understand the many dimensions of a young woman’s process of getting ill and dying of breast cancer, showing that one dies based on the way one lived and that the losses and small deaths, experienced during life, can become superlative or being (re)signified when one is near death. And also, the care for the person in the dying process needs to be “care with attitude”, that involves attention and willingness towards the other, “by really being there” as a whole, caring in life, of life and for life, regardless of how much time is left. Keywords: Family relationships. Death. Breast