RETURNING TO NORMALITY AMONG ADOLESCENTS WITH LEUKEMIA RECEIVING CHEMOTHERAPY

Abstract

Being treated with chemotherapy adds difficulties and suffering on to the lives of adolescents with leukemia because of numerous clinic visits and hospitalizations, as well as a variety of side effects of chemotherapy. Helping these adolescents to live successfully with chemotherapy requires truly understanding of their experiences, which cannot be obtained through studies with ethic viewpoint. This study, thus, employed glaserian grounded theory with the aim to study how Thai adolescents with leukemia live with chemotherapy. Participants were 20 adolescents with leukemia aged 12-19 year olds. Data were collected through in-depth interview and were analyzed by the constant comparative method. “Returning to normality” was the discovered basic social process that adolescents with leukemia use for living with chemotherapy. It consisted of 4 stages, realizing being a leukemic patient, accepting chemotherapy as the key to normal life, learning self-care related to chemotherapy, and pursuing the best self-care. The adolescents with leukemia needed to go through the first stage, "Realizing being a leukemia patient" before stepping through other stages. "Looking for brighter future" was discovered as the force that drove these adolescents to use their resources and effort to go through the last 3 stages to return to their identified normality. The knowledge on living with chemotherapy from the viewpoint of adolescents with leukemia can be used as a guideline for developing nursing interventions for adolescents with leukemia receiving chemotherapy in the future.