Living with life-prolonging chemotherapy-control and meaning-making in the tension between life and death.

Chemotherapy, radiotherapy, hormone therapy and immune therapy have made many cancers chronic, potential curable diseases rather than inevitably fatal, but the treatments are often both mentally and physically stressful even if the side effects varies. The right use of palliative chemotherapy is a complex issue and there are many aspects to take into consideration. The aim of the study was to gain insight into the illness narratives of cancer patients, from the day they suspected that something was wrong up to the present day where they are living with incurable cancer, undergoing life-prolonging chemotherapy. Thirteen narrators were included. They were all cancer patients on chemotherapy with the intention of prolonging life (informed by their oncologist) in an outpatient's clinic in Norway. Narrative analyse of their illness stories was applied. The main findings showed that the narrators considered their lives worth living in spite of the treatment. They seemed to take control and build a new life on "what was left after the storm," and described how they found meaning living in the tension between life and death.

Generation and homogeneity of aerosols in a human whole-body inhalation chamber.

INTRODUCTION: A 16 m(3) whole-body exposure chamber for human exposure to aerosols is described. Several modifications of the aerosol generation and distribution system were needed to ensure a stable aerosol concentration in the chamber, especially when a cyclone pre-classifier was used. RESULTS: After these modifications, stable aerosol concentrations of aluminium oxide with a volume median diameter of 5.7 microm, and approximately 3 microm when the cyclone was used, could be achieved after 1 h of aerosol generation. Aerosol concentrations of 1-8 mg m(-3) generated without the cyclone could be maintained for at least 2 h after the aerosol level had stabilized. The temporal variability [coefficient of variation (CV)] of the aerosol concentration was 4-6%, while concentrations <1 mg m(-3) showed greater relative variability. The spatial variability at 3.8 mg m(-3) without a volunteer in the chamber was 4.8%. With a volunteer in the chamber who performed 30 min of ergometric cycling during 2 h of aerosol exposure, the exposure estimated by personal sampling was 15-17% lower than monitored with an optical particle counter. The variability of personally measured exposure was higher than of stationary measurements showing CVs of 10-19%. CONCLUSIONS: These results show that controlled exposure of human volunteers to a range of concentrations can be achieved with good accuracy in this inhalation chamber. The results compare favourably with other chambers described in the literature. Personal sampling showed lower aerosol concentrations than estimated in an empty chamber and the variability was significantly higher than measured stationary.