Experiences of daily life and life quality in men with prostate cancer. An explorative study. Part I.

Eleven men with prostate cancer were randomly chosen and interviewed during an in-patient period at a southern Swedish hospital. The interview focused on functional health status in relation to daily life and life quality. In addition the sense of coherence scale was used, as well as the European Organization or Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) QLQ C-30 questionnaire. The interview findings were analysed from a phenomenological-hermeneutic perspective and interpreted within the concept of transition. The entry to transition was marked by the men when experiencing an altered life continuum in terms of physical and existential fatigue, pain, micturition problems and an altered sex life. The passage phase was marked by descriptions of a new lifestyle where hope was a central internal resource, creating a positive illusion of life in order to endure. Their external resources were wives and family who supported physically (household matters, gardening) and psycho-logically (comfort, encouragement). The exit phase meant continuously adapting to a new life style, living with a slowly deteriorating functional health status, a new sense of dependency on others, daily life routine broken by in-patient hospital periods and contacts with primary health care. Thus the findings pointed more at continuously facing new passages than a stable exit, i.e. an ongoing transition. The areas of life imbalance described may serve as a basis for care assessment and intervention as well as supplying support of the transitional process.